Kannazuki no Miko: My Sister and I
by Cravitz33919
Summary: Testing Please Ignore
1. Mothers and Daughters

**_CHAPTER ONE: MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS._**

* * *

 _Sunday, June 21st, 9:30 PM._

* * *

In a pair of silk pajama – in indigo, her favorite color – worn over by a bathrobe, Himemiya Chikane slid open the glass pane in the living room and breathed in the fresh air of a night in June, quite cool in contrast with the terrible heat during the afternoon when an air conditioner was indispensable to this house's occupants, and quietly enjoyed the amazing fragrances of the thousand roses grown in the garden and permeating every gust of wind dancing atop. Having returned from a concert in Rome earlier in the day and spent the following seven hours catching up on sleep, the thirty-eight-year-old pianist and her angelic wife had just left the pleasant confinement of their big bath chamber on the ground floor. Quite invigorated by the warm water of the Jacuzzi, she was very much looking forward to a delightful night in bed with her faithful companion, who had been married to her for the last seventeen years.

Of course, she had to deal with quite a... sensitive issue first.

Slipping into a pair of sandals and stuffing her hands into her robe's pockets, Chikane tread leisurely along one of the soil-paved paths in her lush garden leading her to a specific stone bench situated right between the grove of the red roses in the north and the white in the east. On that bench sat her eldest daughter, Himemiya Shizuka, in an elegant nightgown and a simple coat, who was currently engrossed in ushering a sorrowful melody, too soft to have reached the living room, out of her concert flute.

The seventeen-year-old had inherited more traits from Chikane than from her other mother. Glossy azure hair, tapered at the nape of her neck and fashioned into a narrow flow extending all the way to her waist, framed a face that was more or less a replica of Chikane's when she was the girl's age. Thin and long eyebrows arched over a pair of stunning sapphire eyes an intense stare from which could pull a man to his knees and have him beg for forgiveness whether he had done anything wrong or not. Her small nose and cherry petal lips, however, clearly belonged to the other supplier of her genes. Chikane must admit that the girl was even prettier than she herself was nineteen years ago.

The gentle stream of the melancholic notes dwindled and thinned into nothingness. Chikane was compelled to applaud. The clapping of her hands drew from her statuesque daughter a startled turn of her head.

"Chikane-kaa-san," the girl murmured respectfully and lowered the concert flute, gilded and custom-made to fit her personal preferences, onto her lap as Chikane settled down next to her on the bench. "My playing did not disturb your and Himeko-kaa-san's sleep, did it?" Even Shizuka's manner of speech resembled hers although the former's voice had a deeper and more caressing quality. It was chocolate to the human ears.

"It did not," Chikane affirmed, her hand stroking her daughter's head. The smile she received in return was forced and outlined by a profound sadness that perhaps the girl had not meant to show. "How long have you been sitting here?"

"A couple of hours, maybe?" Shizuka glanced at her bare wrist. "I forgot my watch."

"You have not been playing only _'The Trail of Tears'_ during that amount of time, I hope?" It was a piano piece she herself had composed a while back to portray the depth of sadness she had felt during the time she was imprisoned in the Moon Shrine and unable to see the person she loved.

The seventeen-year-old lowered her eyes to her lap and nodded quietly.

"Good adaptation from the piano to the flute, in any case," Chikane complimented. "I especially like your improvisations in the second movement." As it would seem, Shizuka had also inherited her talents in music although the former showed much more interest and aptitude in the flute instead of the piano. She often joked it was because she could not bring a piano wherever she went.

"Although," Chikane added in a much quieter voice, "I hope you are not going to perform this very piece in the upcoming concert." Shizuka's genius was so widely recognized and appreciated in her senior high school, the Ototachibana Academy, that the wealthy music club, in fact a recruiting place for the Himemiya Music Academy across town, had promised her a solo performance in its upcoming grand concert, an rare honor no more than three people had been awarded with. It was scheduled to open to all students in a couple of weeks.

"Why not, kaa-san?" she inquired.

"Because it is too depressing," Chikane answered. " _'The Trail of Tears'_ was an embodiment of the pain of separation, yet it did contain a ray of hope for reunion at the every end. Through the improvisations, you have changed the entire meaning of the piece and essentially turned it into a lament for a lost love in which bleakness and despair rang from start to finish." A long pause. "As an impartial composer, I do appreciate the changes, but I am not sure the young demographic of your audience will understand, or maybe even welcome, such an excruciating depth."

Her daughter said nothing. Sighing, she tugged gently at the tail of the younger Himemiya's azure hair. "It has not gone any better since I saw you last, has it?" A brief shake of the girl's head answered her. "I heard from Otoha-san that you had been avoiding her for the last few months. Is that true?"

"What else could I do?" The seventeen-year-old turned her head and gazed toward the swimming pool. The lights placed along its vertical walls and beneath the calm surface lit up the entire body of water and created even more contrast between itself and its complement, the grove of black roses was the second half of the yin-yang disc. Ichigaya Kazato's second son, whoever he was, certainly had a vested interest in Chinese philosophy. "My feelings become almost uncontrollable in her presence," she professed. "It is best for her and for me both that I stay away."

"It must have been difficult for you, daughter. But... have you ever considered telling her how you truly feel? Keeping everything in has never been a good solution."

"That is out of the question, kaa-san," Shizuka mumbled bleakly.

"Why not?" Chikane countered gently. "You know Himeko and I will always support you. Unlike other parents, we only care whether you can obtain happiness, not whom you love."

"And I am thankful for that." Shizuka looked up at her, the girl's bright sapphire eyes awash with gratitude. "Everyday I wondered how someone like me could have such wonderful mothers like you and Himeko-kaa-san. But..." She sighed darkly. "It is not going to work out."

"Why are you so certain?" Chikane ran her long fingers through a few tresses of her daughter's hair. "You know she adores you. You know she loves you."

"She has a boyfriend now." Shizuka laughed softly. It was a laugh full of hopelessness. It made Chikane's hackles rise. It was rather unthinkable that a seventeen-year-old could make such a sound... but it was rare too, that such a young person harbored within herself a pain she could only express through the musical notes.

"It does not mean anything," she pointed out. "As far as I am concerned, she only agreed to go out with him. She said she never told him she loved him. She might have simply been curious."

"Even if she was not in love with him, I would not tell her how I feel," the seventeen-year-old insisted. "I do not want to disgust her. I do not want her to hate me for the abnormal love I harbor toward her." Tears welled in her eyes. "I will die the day she does, kaa-san."

Chikane gently pulled her daughter into her arms and hugged her tightly. She said nothing and devoted her time to trying to sooth the girl crying softly in her embrace. There was nothing she could assure Shizuka to make her feel better, especially when the latter was convinced that nothing good could come from a confession to the girl she loved. It was another personality trait that she had passed on to her daughter. Once the seventeen-year-old had believed something as truth, no one in this world could persuade her otherwise.

Except her target of affection, of course.

* * *

"Have you tried on the clothes Chikane-chan and I brought back from Europe, Kotoha?" Himemiya Himeko asked. The thirty-eight-year-old photographer, in the an outfit identical to what her beloved wife had worn when they left the bath chamber, lounged comfortably in a couch in her youngest daughter's room and occasionally sipped on the cup of coffee she had brought with her. It was one of the measures she had taken along with the seven hours or sleep she enjoyed earlier to ensure that sleepiness was going to stay out of her way as long as she wanted, allowing her and her regal companion to spend a pleasant evening in bed. Chikane-chan's concert tour in Europe had been very successful, but it had also been stressing and devastating in that the fatigue it caused often felled them as soon as they returned to their hotel room. They could no longer make love every night or whenever they had a chance like when they were newlyweds. Her beloved musician missed that as much as she did, and she had promised Himeko a compensation for the lack of physical intimacy later tonight. Their room was soundproofed a long time ago, so they needn't fear that the children were going to hear the noises they would make.

"I did, Hi-kaa-chan," Himemiya Kotoha answered in a merry voice. The youngest member of the family sat in a persimmon-colored pink pajama with her legs crossed atop the bed. "They all fit."

Sixteen years old last April, the girl was now a first-year student in the prestigious Ototachibana Academy. Having inherited most of Himeko's appearance traits, Kotoha had lustrous waist-length golden hair that she almost always kept in a long braid, a pair of large amethyst eyes that were deep enough for another person to fall in and sink for eternity, and a heart-shaped face so cute none would fail to love. If Himeko at the prime at her life was a rosebud, her youngest daughter right now was a Maiden's Blush in full bloom. Coupled with the fact that the sixteen-year-old, like her onee-chan, had acquired her other mother's genes in that they each possessed a full chest and a trim hourglass figure, they easily became Ototachibana's sweethearts. According to her old friends Nakashima Miho and Igarashi Aiko, who taught Physics and Chemistry at the same school, her daughters were famous in the same way a beauty pageant would in her home country.

The two members of the Fanatic Trio claimed they often caught students, male and female alike, stuffing love letters in the two girls' shoe lockers. Himeko suspected they might be exaggerating when they claimed sometimes the lockers were so full they couldn't even put the shoes in.

"That's good," she said. "It's been a couple of months since I saw you last, so I was afraid you might have," she chuckled softly behind a raised hand, "gained a little weight. You do like sweets too much for your own good, Kotoha."

"I do, don't I?" The girl grinned and scratched the back of her head. "Did you and Chi-kaa-chan have fun in Europe?"

"It was more tired than fun," Himeko said and took another sip of her coffee. "Did you receive the photos I took there and sent to your e-mail account?" Vigorous nods confirmed the answer. "Which place do you like best?"

"Rome!" her youngest daughter gushed. "The ones taken in Saint Peter's Square and Basilica were beautiful! Kaa-chan, can we visit the Vatican next time we take a vacation?"

"I'm not sure we appreciate the idea of flying all the way to Italy just so you can sit in front of the Basilica and spend the whole day drawing it."

Himeko laughed softly at that. The younger of the Himemiya sisters, strangely enough, harbored a burning fashion for drawing anything she deemed worthy of her time instead of capturing their essence in a photograph. Once she sat on the balcony of the master bedroom on the second floor and stayed there hours on end bringing the beauty of their rose gardens into a small sheet of paper. She succeeded, and the fruit of her labor took even the breath of the Himemiya princess away. The drawing now hung proudly in the Ototachibana Art Gallery as the first place winner of the Academy's twenty-seventh annual art contest.

"Besides," Himeko added wryly, "you'd have to ask your other mom for that, Kotoha. She calls the shots, not me."

"Oh come on." The sixteen-year-old joined her mirth. "You know Chi-kaa-chan never refused you anything in her life. But fine, where is she anyway? I'll talk to her myself."

She gestured at the huge sliding glass pane next to the bed. Beyond it spread the luxuriant rose garden on a stone bench in which her wife and her eldest daughter were sitting. There, the blue-haired princess was holding the seventeen-year-old in her arms and running her hands up and down the younger Himemiya's back. Since the sliding door was in place and there was a considerable distance from the room to where the two of them sat, not a sound reached Himeko's ears.

She frowned, her forefinger tapping her lips thoughtfully. She was sure the moonlight of her world wasn't hugging their daughter just to show motherly affection, taking into account what she had heard from her trusted maid earlier. Kisaragi Otoha, sent from the Himemiya Mansion itself, had been working for Himeko's family since forever. The curly-haired woman had been here and looked after the children when Chikane-chan and Himeko traveled the world. She cooked for Shizuka and Kotoha, she drove them to school, she kept them safe, and she phoned the pianist every weekend to assure her that all was well. Or whenever trouble arose.

The latter seemed to be the case during the last four months. The maid was very worried that Shizuka's mood had been deteriorating lately. She reported that the child sometimes refused to touch her food, often confined herself in her room, and frequently spent her time brooding alone in her class. Despite knowing full well what could have caused their eldest daughter's depression, Chikane-chan and Himeko had been alarmed to say the least. That was why they cancelled a couple of concerts and flew home early despite having to pay a large of sum of money due to the breach of contract.

"I'm jealous," Kotoha muttered as she took a body pillow into her arms and held it tightly.

"Chikane-chan hugged you quite a few times since coming home, Kotoha," Himeko pointed out.

"It's not that, Hi-kaa-chan." The sixteen-year-old shook her head. "I'm... jealous of Chi-kaa-chan because she could hug onee-chan so easily." The girl's arms tightened around the pillow. Her adorable face grew so sad in such a short amount of time Himeko felt her heart throb. "Last I did was months ago."

"Oh really?" she murmured in a noncommittal voice.

"Onee-chan dislikes me now," her youngest daughter confided, her voice no less sad than her countenance. Her amethyst irises, normally as bright as the gemstones under the sun, could have lost all of their light. The atmosphere in this very room, merry a few heartbeat ago, had become so heavy she could feel its weight on her shoulders and back.

"That isn't true," she said. "You're her precious sister. She loves you more than you think."

"Not anymore, kaa-chan," Kotoha insisted. "She doesn't even want to look at me these days. Do you know how difficult it was for me to speak to her?" She began thumbing her left ear with her hand, something she always did whenever something weighed on her inert adolescent mind. Moisture shone in her eyes. "Even when I did, the best I got out of her was a few words."

"She..." Himeko hesitated, "has her own problems to deal with, Kotoha. Please understand that she's going through a very difficult time of her life right now. Plus, the fact that she's distanced herself from you doesn't mean that she's stopped loving you." _It's the opposite,_ she finished mentally.

"What do you mean, kaa-chan?" asked Kotoha worriedly. She rose from the bed and knelt down in front of Himeko. "Did something bad happen to onee-chan? Tell me, please?" The sixteen-year-old laid her hands on Himeko's knees and looked up at her in such a pleading manner her beseeching gaze alone melted Himeko's heart.

"I don't have the right to tell you," she said in regret. "Only Shizuka does."

Falling silent, her youngest daughter laid a side of her face on Himeko's lap. "I miss onee-chan a lot..." she whispered. "I miss how close she and I used to be, kaa-chan..." Her voice quivered and sounded as though it was about to break.

"Then try to get to know her more," Himeko advised, her hand stroking her precious child's head. "Right now, she's building a wall between herself and the rest of the world so that she could protect what she holds dear. If you truly cherish her, I know you do," Kotoha nodded softly, "try and break down that wall. Shizuka's not as cold and distant as you and she think she is. Deep down, she's always the person you know and love. Help her overcome this tumultuous time of her life, Kotoha, and you'd find your old onee-chan back."

"But I... I don't know how, kaa-chan." Kotoha gave a strangled sob. A tear rolled down her face and fell upon Himeko's lap, quickly seeping through the fabric of her pajama pants. It was hot. It injected an overdose of anguish into her veins. "She doesn't let me get too close to her."

She took a deep breath. "There's a way, my little puppy," she whispered to her youngest daughter. Then she told her how.

Almost immediately, the sixteen-year-old lifted her head and gazed up at Himeko in shock. "But that would be lying!" she exclaimed, sounding scandalized. Still, she couldn't hide the gleam of excitement in her amethyst eyes. She probably thought the idea might just work.

"If a lie can help you get closer to Shizuka like you used to be, will you say it?"

A moment of silence. A decisive nod.

"Keep it secret from your onee-chan, okay?" Himeko gently pinched the teenager's cheek.

"Yes, kaa-chan." Her daughter beamed at her, her mood vastly improved.

"Let's talk about more uplifting matters." She smiled. "How are things between you and Mikoto?"

Oogami Mikoto was the only son to her best friends Oogami Souma and Oogami Makoto, who also happened to be Shizuka's classmate. He was currently the boyfriend to Himeko's youngest daughter. Resembling his father in more than one way yet possessing a far more affectionate personality, the boy had shown romantic interest in Kotoha quite a few years back and only managed to bring himself to confess to her a few months ago. Luckily for him, she accepted his feelings for reasons Himeko could not even _think_ of. She had to admit that it had caught her by surprise.

"We're okay, I guess?" The sixteen-year-old gave a rueful smile. "He took me out for a date every weekend and called me up every night. It's fun being with him. Mii-chan is a sweet and kind boy."

"He definitely is," she agreed. "Did you kiss him yet?"

Kotoha blushed hotly. "On the cheeks... yes. Many times."

Himeko was amused. "You've been going out for _months_ and that was all you did?"

"I just don't feel like it." the girl mumbled. "Do you think it was because I'm too shy, kaa-chan?"

"Perhaps it's because you've known him all your life," Himeko said, smiling. "The transition from being a childhood friend to a boyfriend is sometimes very awkward. Maybe things are going to change in the future." _Or maybe not,_ she mused. "How is he doing in school, by the way?"

"He's doing great," her adolescent daughter answered her with a big grin. "He's tied with onee-chan right now in terms of grade. He's really proud of it because she always ranked higher than him before. He claimed hours of studying must have paid off."

 _I don't think so,_ she disagreed mentally. _Shizuka has always been the more intelligent between the two of them. He caught up with her_ because _she wasn't really paying attention in class._ She felt bad toward her best friends for thinking that way, but she knew that they too, were aware it was the truth.

"How about club activities?" She cleared her throat. Beyond the glass pane, she saw her beloved wife walking back inside with an arm draped across her eldest daughter's shoulders. Kotoha didn't notice "He's always been good at sports like his father."

"That went well for him too," the adolescent disclosed. "He won the right to present the school in the Inter-High Athletic Competition in two weeks."

"I must call him and congratulate him later, then," Himeko said.

The conversation grew lighter as she inquired her daughter a few more things about her school life and love life, offering carefully chosen pieces of advice when appropriate. At the first signs of sleepiness that her daughter gave, she wished her goodnight and left. As she was closing the door to the sixteen-year-old's room, she saw the latter use a remote control to turn off the fluorescent tubes on the ceiling and switch on the lamps on either side of her bed. It was unfortunate the girl had also inherited from Himeko a severe scotophobia, morbid fear of the dark. Sighing, she strolled back to the living room and climbed the stairs to the second floor.

"How are things going for Kotoha?" her blue-haired princess asked the moment she stepped inside the master bedroom. Chikane-chan was sitting cross-legged atop the bed with a photo album spread across her knees.

"She's mostly okay," Himeko sat down next to her sweetheart and slipped her right arm around the latter's left, "although she's depressed because she thought Shizuka didn't like her anymore."

Glancing sideways, she realized the taller woman had been looking at the photos of Kotoha and Shizuka when they were respectively five and six. One showed them in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the second in Times Square in New York, and the third in Stonehenge, England. In none of them were the two girls not holding hands. In all of them the children were gazing at one another instead of the camera like they were supposed to. Himeko's daughters had been so close, so affectionate toward one another, and so infatuated with each other that sometimes leafing through their picture albums would give her the same feelings as watching a seventeen-year-long movie chronicling the life of a pair of lovebirds.

It was ironic that Shizuka had become more or less a stranger to her younger sister for the exact same reason. It was sad.

"She has no idea," the pianist remarked.

"How is Shizuka?" Himeko inquired.

"She is spiraling into depression," her beloved wife murmured darkly. "If it continues, I fear she is going to do something drastic to herself." The gravity of the situation sent a chill slithering down her back. "I hope we can do something to help her during the next three weeks that we are home."

"I don't think we can, Chikane-chan," she opined quietly. "Shizuka's a headstrong girl." Her faithful companion sighed and concurred with a nod. "It might prove more fruitful if we work on the other end of the problem instead."

She reached out her hand and turned a page of the album laid atop the princess's lap. The first photo that she saw depicted a scene so innocent in nature yet containing within itself what might as well have been a frighteningly accurate prophecy. It was taken in the same year the family visited Paris, England, and New York. It was captured in the bedroom Shizuka and Kotoha had shared until they started middle school. It came into existence one night when Himeko, who happened to have her camera in hand at that moment, passed by her daughters' room, the door to which wasn't shut.

In the photo, the two girls sat atop a bed in which they cuddled each other to sleep every night. Little Shizuka was reclining against the pile of pillows at the headboard with little Kotoha seated between her knees and cozily nestled in a tight, warm hug. The younger Himemiya's head was turned aside, her chin slightly raised, her eyes closed, her cheeks bearing the color of the crimson pajama she had on her then, and her lips receiving those of her onee-chan in a light yet lingering and loving kiss.

Himeko's instincts as a photographer recognized it as a splendid moment rarely ever seen. They compelled her to lift her hands and capture it with her camera. At that point of her life, she didn't think much of it beyond sibling affection. She often found herself and her beloved Chikane-chan smiling fondly upon seeing the picture in the album, what they considered a sisterly bond pure as the falling snow that linked their daughters' innocent hearts. Never once did they imagine Shizuka's feelings toward her little sister would gradually mature into a full-blown crush and ultimately blossom into true love. Never once did they expect a day to come in which their eldest child distanced herself from the girl she cherished because she viewed her feelings as impure, twisted, and disastrous regardless of the fact that her parents tried to convince her otherwise.

"Maybe you are right," the princess of the Himemiya conceded, her voice musical and thoughtful. "Maybe it is time we employ a different method." Her long fingers caressed the laminated surface of the photograph.

"I feel bad for Mikoto," she whispered. "It's like we're conspiring to take his girlfriend away from him. I don't know what I'm going to tell Souma-kun and Mako-chan should we succeed."

"We will cross that bridge when we cross it," her sweetheart comforted her. "Besides, we are Shizuka and Kotoha's parents. Their happiness is all that matters to us. You should never feel guilty about doing what is best for your daughters, Himeko." The blue-haired woman set the album aside and gently drew Himeko into a warm, tight hug.

"I know, Chikane-chan," she murmured atop the musician's shoulder. "I know."

To deliver their eldest daughter out of the abyss she had dug herself into, they must find a way to force their youngest child to become aware of her deepest feelings. When they succeeded – not _"if they succeeded,"_ for the price of failure might be too great for them to pay – the relationship between Shizuka and Kotoha would never be the same again.

* * *

 _Monday, June 22nd, 9:05 PM._

* * *

"Hi there, Mii-chan," Himemiya Kotoha murmured into her cell phone as she closed the door behind her. Feeling as though she had put on a few pounds due to her overstuffed stomach, the youngest daughter of the Himemiya family quietly put her purse atop her desk and settled comfortably on her bed with her back luxuriating in the soft feel of the pile of pillows she was reclining upon. The room was brightly lit with four pairs of fluorescent tubes hanging on the ceiling, the curtains to the sliding glass pane drawn, and the air conditioner on the far wall humming almost unnoticeably as its system maintained a pleasant coolness.

"Hey, Kotoha," her boyfriend greeted her warmly from the other side of the wireless. Like always, his voice was gentle and sweet. "Are you home already?"

"Yeah," she confirmed.

"How was dinner with your parents?"

"It was good," she gushed. "They took me to the Ichihana Diner on the other side of the city. The chefs added a few more dishes to the menu earlier in the day, and they were all delicious."

"Good for you." Mikoto chuckled. "How about Shizuka? Did she enjoy it?"

"She didn't come with us," Kotoha muttered glumly. "She said she had a couple of things to do, so she stayed home and ate with Otoha-san." The maid, whom she liked and respected very much, was also invited to the warm family dinner. The curly-haired woman, however, announced that she wasn't going at the last minute, when she learned that the elder of the Himemiya siblings didn't want to go. "Did the teachers in your class assign a lot of homework or something, Mii-chan?" Having been in the same class since grade school, Shizuka and Mikoto were the best of friends. That was why Kotoha had been shocked the moment the seventeen-year-old boy asked _her_ out instead.

There was a brief pause on the phone. "Not sure," he murmured afterwards. "I'll have to check. I haven't been looking at my homework since leaving school, you see."

"What have you been doing, Mii-chan?" she asked curiously.

"Playing tennis with dad. He's helping me train for the competition."

"Souma-san won, didn't he?" She grinned.

"You know I never beat him once in my life," the boy said ruefully. "He's way out of my league."

"Don't feel bad," she spoke into her wireless, unable to keep the hilarity out of her voice. "One day, when he has grown too old to even hold the racket, you'll defeat him for sure." She laughed at that.

"Why, thank you for your comforting words, miss," he fired back in playful sarcasm.

"Hey, think about the good side, Mii-chan," she said, her hand reaching for a remote control lying atop the mattress. "Your coach is the undefeated high school champion. There's no way the first place in the competition can slip out of your grasp." At a press of a button, the sleek and thin cooling system hanging on the far wall began to wind down, its low and pleasant hum fading into quietness. The night had come and the terrible heat of the afternoon has been chased away by the cool air of the evening. There was no need to keep the machine running anymore.

"I'm not too sure about that," insisted her boyfriend. "Plenty of good players in other schools. I saw them compete last July." He hadn't joined the tennis club in his first year in Ototachibana, so he didn't have a chance to participate in the previous competition.

"I'm sure you'll win anyway," she told him.

A press on another button of the remote drew the curtains to either side, revealing the scenery beyond the sliding glass pane. Her breath caught the instant she realized someone was in the rose garden. Standing atop the diving board at the southern end of the swimming pool, also widest and deepest, was a tall and spare girl whose moist azure hair fell in a straight and narrow stream all the way to her slim waist, whose perfectly round chest was decently covered by a wet bikini top, and whose most personal region was engulfed in the embrace of a triangular bottom. Her bare arms were firm and muscle toned, her back straight, her thighs lithe, and her face so gorgeous no other girl would be able to stop herself from looking twice. Her name was Shizuka, the Himemiya couple's eldest daughter.

"Kotoha?" Her boyfriend's voice jerked her back to reality.

"Um... yes?" she answered breathlessly, her amethyst eyes glued on her onee-chan. The numerous droplets of water both lingering on and dripping off Shizuka's body were gathering the luminosity given out by the lights beneath the pool's surface and shone with it like diamonds under the morning sun. The sight of her sister poising so elegantly and so regally atop the diving board made her want to take out her sketchbook and record the image with her own hands. _She's so beautiful,_ a voice marveled at the back of her head.

"Why so quiet all of a sudden? Something wrong?"

"Nothing, Mii-chan. I just saw onee-chan in the swimming pool."

"Really?" He sounded skeptical. "The water is rather chilly in the evening. I can understand if she wants to swim in the afternoon to escape the heat, but now?"

"I don't know," she heard herself mumble and sensed her attention taking flight to where her precious sister was. Her heart was yanked up her throat the moment Shizuka leapt off the diving board and into the air. There, she made a couple of graceful turns prior to diving head-first into the ten-feet-deep end of the swimming pool. A few heartbeats later, the seventeen-year-old's pristine form broke the water surface in a soundless splash and a majestic fashion, her face painted with delight. Keeping herself afloat with her well-proportioned limbs now, the young beauty looked a mermaid spun out from a fairytale.

"Well, your onee-chan has always been eccentric," Mikoto remarked. His voice drifted further and further away from her with every word he spoke.

Heart aflutter, soul awash with wonder, and cheeks aflush with raw emotions she didn't know she had, Kotoha rose from the bed and stood with her forehead placed against the sliding door. While her breaths, searing and quick and ragged, misted the glass pane in front of her, she laid her vacant hand against it and quietly traced with her fingertip the sinuous outline of her waterborne onee-chan. Her ears full of the drumming sounds of her madly racing heart, she watched the statuesque seventeen-year-old climb up the ladder and balance herself on the diving board, where she paused for a few seconds before she became airborne once more.

Watching onee-chan took a dive was like watching a maestro conductor perform onstage. All of her movements were flawless and none redundant. Every motion of hers melted seamlessly into the next to form a perfect maneuver. Each of her gestures was condensed elegance, undiluted grace, and absolute chastity. If Kotoha were to say so herself, her beloved sister was the perfect human mankind had always sought. Shizuka was Kotoha's pride, her eternal admiration, and her unending love.

"You're freaking me out, Kotoha," her boyfriend's words pierced into her reverie. "You alright?" Worries were the color of his word. Concerns were the timbre of his tone. Yet he failed to touch her heart.

"I'm... I'm okay, Mii-chan," she told him, her own voice a quiet whisper. "I think I'm just tired. I'll talk to you tomorrow, okay?" She hung up before she knew it.

Uncaring, she tossed her cell phone onto the bed and returned to watching the stunning mermaid frolicking in the water of the pool. Her grasp on time loosened, as did her awareness of the surrounding. She only snapped back to reality when it occurred to her that her onee-chan had forgotten to bring one thing to the pool.

* * *

Like any other, Himemiya Shizuka was made of flesh and blood, not exactly engineered to withstand the iciness of the water at night. She only dumped herself into the swimming pool because only in this chilly sanctuary could she douse the flame of despair smoldering beneath her skin and threatening to burn up her sanity. Ever since the other three members of family left the house for a dinner at the famous Ichihana Diner, she had confined herself in her room and wallowed in misery until she could stand it no more. This swimming pool provided her with a temporary escape from her anguish. As long as she continued to work her limbs in the water, she could force herself to stop thinking about what awaited her the second she returned to her private chamber. She knew she could not stay underwater forever, but at the very least she would have a short moment of peace.

And now, her time was up.

Sensing the fatigue fastening around her arms and legs as well as the tiny surges of pain in her overworked muscles, she knew she had to come up immediately or risk drowning in this body of icy water. Sighing, Shizuka paddled to the stainless steel ladder at the deep end of the pool and climbed up its steps while shaking her head lightly to dispose of the water coating her face.

Little did she expect to see Kotoha standing on the ground and smiling sweetly at her. Her face burning at the sight of her little sister, she considered jumping back into the pool.

 _When did she return?_ Shizuka thought in alarm. It would seem that her forfeiting all thoughts, whether fond or depressing, while thriving in her aquatic shelter had robbed her of the grip on time as well as the awareness of what was going on around her. _And why... does she look so cute in this outfit?_ Her eyes meandered all over the petite and sylphine frame of the younger Himemiya, appreciating the curves of the full chest under a tight tee-shirt, until she jerked back her gaze like a whip and became disgusted at herself for looking at her little sister in such an impure manner.

But she knew she could not have helped it. A painful incident as recent as four months back had forced her to come to terms with the fact that she had fallen helplessly in love with the stunning girl standing before her now. Himemiya Kotoha was her precious sibling, whose safety she had always devoted her heart and soul to protect, whose adorable face she had spent her days and nights mooning over, and whose soothing presence occupied even her shortest dream.

The sixteen-year-old was also the reason she sometimes wished she could die in her sleep just so she could escape the agony she had been suffering since the moment she realized her feelings, twisted and abnormal as they were, would forever be unrequited.

"Here you go, onee-chan." The girl she loved offered her a dry towel.

"Ah... thank you," Shizuka murmured numbly and took the fluffy piece of cloth into her hands, noting that without her accursed forgetfulness, she would not have been landed in this horrible situation. She had not distanced herself from Kotoha just so she could be cornered now with nary a means to escape.

Quietly, she settled down on the edge of the pool and dried her hair without looking at the little angel. A part of her hoped fervently that Kotoha would go back to her room and leave her to suffer in peace. Another wished with all her heart the girl would stay at the pool's side, whisper words of honey into her ears, bless her lips with kisses, and make love to her until the sun rose to illuminate the world.

Her teeth rounded on her underlip hard enough to draw blood. Her fingers tried to rip through the fabric of the towel and sank into her scalp. Body suffused with unbearable heat, she trembled and realized in utmost horror that the distance she had been maintaining between her and the love of her life had done naught to diminish her emotions. The only thing it accomplished was fanning the flames of longing and desire for the one person who could make her existence complete. Now, she knew that she wanted Kotoha, in both heart and body, much more than she did four months ago, when she first forced herself to acknowledge what she harbored toward her younger sibling went far beyond the limits of sisterly affection.

She did not know whether she should start to cry or be relieved when the light of her world sat down at the edge of the pool. With more than an arm separating their shoulders, her little sister took off her sandals and gingerly dipped her pale, small feet in the water. She gasped in surprise, shivered lightly, and withdrew them the moment her cute little toes touched the icy content of the pool. Yet in no time at all was she splashing water around with her feet while chortling softly in what seemed utmost delights. Shizuka thought the breaths she was releasing were burning the insides of her nostrils. She feared her heart was going to burst from the cuteness she had witnessed. Her baby sister was too childlike and adorable for her to resist. She was getting dizzy just from watching the girl she loved.

 _This is not good,_ she realized in nerve-severing terror. _I am falling in love with her all over again._ The effort she had put into avoiding the meaning of her life was going down the drain... and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Somewhere deep within her heart, she did not even want to.

"Onee-chan?" called Kotoha in the sweetest voice in the world. The sixteen-year-old was gazing at her with an impish grin curving her delicate mouth, a pair of cherry petals Shizuka had dreamed of showering with deep, passionate kisses on more than one occasion. "Is it okay if I ask you for a favor?"

"What is it?" She heard apprehension creeping into her voice. In this intoxicated state, she was in no position to refuse any of the little angel's requests.

"I received new homework for the art class today," the younger Himemiya murmured. Her eyes, well-polished amethyst gems reflecting the light coming off the water surface, were downcast. "I... I have to do a... nude drawing of a female subject. Would you... would you like to be my model?" Toward the end, her voice grew so low it was nearly inaudible.

Her shoulders draped over by the towel handed to her by her most precious person, Shizuka felt her cheeks rapidly warm up. Had this request been made four months ago, she would have had no problem granting it. Now that she had become painfully aware of her deepest and darkest feelings, there could be no way she could survive a drawing session in which she had to bare every part of her body to the precious angel. The mere _thought_ rekindled the fire beneath her skin, parched her throat, and quickened her pulse.

"You should ask either Chikane-kaa-san or Himeko-kaa-san," she suggested hopefully. "They are much prettier than I am. They would be far better subjects." She was rambling. Gods of Heaven standing witness, she was also nervous and afraid. She could not help it.

"But they're... moms." Kotoha thumbed an earlobe. "It's really... awkward to draw them... naked."

"Would the same problem not apply to me as well?" Shizuka pointed out.

"You're... different, onee-chan," argued the girl she loved. "I've seen you without clothes plenty of times. We used to take baths together, didn't we?" Her voice suddenly grew sad. "So please, help me with this assignment?"

She scooted toward Shizuka and slowly reduced the distance between their sides. She could only watch in stunned stillness and with bated breath as that same distance shrank to half an arm, a hand, and then nothing more than a hair's breadth. The love of her life was seated next to her on the edge of the pool now, gazing up at her pleadingly with a pair of puppy eyes. A powerful current of electricity surged along her nerves as a hand, a little smaller than hers but no less soft or warm, fell upon the back of hers and rubbed it in a very affectionate manner. Suddenly, she became acutely aware of the snowy shade of the skin on the neck of her sweetheart, the rhythmic movements of the alluring orbs under that tight tee-shirt, the pink color marring that smooth pair of cheeks, and the pleading look in those adorable amethyst eyes.

"I... will think about it," she said weakly and tore her eyes away from her first love.

"Please, onee-chan," implored the golden-haired angel. "You know how shy I am around people. I can't ask anyone else to pose for me nude. You're the only one who can help me. Please?"

The warmth emanating from her little sister's body, unsuppressed by the cool summer night, and the imploring tone of her sweet voice softened Shizuka's heart and shattered her resolve.

"Okay," she assented in resignation. "Come to my room around eight tomorrow night, ne?"

The younger Himemiya acted so quickly that before she could even think of dodging, a pair of soft, moist lips had already landed on her cheek and given her a kiss that lasted long enough to feel the full force of Kotoha's love. She was so shocked by the gesture of affection she nearly slipped off the tiled border of the pool. Her heart was beating so strongly it ached.

"Thanks, onee-chan!" her little puppy exclaimed, her adolescent face awash with genuine joy. It rendered her more gorgeous and difficult to resist than ever. Shizuka's heart pounded like a hammer in a blacksmith's hand. _Gods above,_ she prayed, her hand absentmindedly caressing her cheek, _please do not let me kiss her. Once I do... I will not be able to stop._

"No need," she mumbled half-heartedly. "I guess... I will see you tomorrow then." Determined to get away from her little sister as far as she could so that her restraints would have no chance of giving into darkest desires, she attempted to rise to her feet. She was forced to stay still however, as Kotoha wrapped her arms around one of hers and held on to her tight. The soft feel of the golden-haired girl's breasts, so shapely and soft and ample for one so young, pressed against her arm weakened her so much she had to cling to every ounce of strength she possessed to not melt into a puddle. Her mind spun.

"Won't you stay here for a little bit, onee-chan?" the girl she loved murmured. "I haven't had a chance to be this close to you for a long time." There was not one hint of accusation in her words. Shizuka still felt the stake of guilt run her through.

Silence hung over them while Shizuka desperately clung to her self-control and fought off her own demons, which seemed to gain more strength with every pulse she felt rippling out from beneath the other girl's chest. Heat gathered at the sensitive region between her thighs, reminding her harshly of the eternal longing she harbored toward her sweetheart. Having her one true love so close yet unable to caress her, kiss her, or reveal to her how much she meant was practically crushing Shizuka's internal organs and filling her mind with hopelessness. This level of physical intimacy was unraveling her sinful existence.

"I am going back to my room first, Kotoha," she announced and pried her arm forcefully from the golden-haired girl's grip. She then hastily risen to her feet and walked away, determined to ignore whatever the light of her world might say to stop her.

She failed.

"Do you hate me so much you have to get away from me?" The younger Himemiya's voice halted Shizuka dead in her tracks. The sixteen-year-old sounded so hurt Shizuka felt as though she had just been slammed across her chest by a steel hammer. Slowly turning around, she found herself facing a Himemiya Kotoha who was beside herself with anguish. "Have I offended you so badly you wouldn't forgive me?" Tears welled in the adolescent beauty's amethyst eyes.

"No!" She panicked. "How can I hate you? I cannot even stay mad at you for more than fifteen minutes. What could have given you such an idea...?" The rest of the sentence died in her throat.

She of all people knew the answer to that question.

"What else aside from the fact that you don't want to look at me anymore?" the little angel said in a ragged voice that spoke volumes of her profound sadness. "Don't you remember how close we were?"

She did. In fact, she remembered it all too clearly for her own comfort.

"Why did you stop coming to my room?" The girl with the lustrous golden braid looked up at her with teary eyes. A sob escaped her delicate mouth, a sound so soft as it crossed the night air and ended up swallowed up by the song of the winds rustling the leaves yet so thunderous as it entered Shizuka's ears and reverberated endlessly in her head.

"Kotoha... I..." Her voice trailed off. Her mouth clamped shut. Her hands clenched into fists at her sides. Bleakness seized her.

There was no excuse she could make to even try explain her noticeable absence in her little sister's life. Not one that would not reveal the nature of her twisted love for her anyway. She no longer wanted to, or even dared to, knock on the younger Himemiya's door because she was afraid of the things they liked to do when they were together, of the physical intimacy that they were ever so fond of showering one another with, and of the outrageous words they were keen on whispering into each other's ear.

Caught off guard by the golden-haired girl's question, she could not stop her mind from reeling back to one of their happier moments, when she had yet to recognize the symptoms of her lovesick soul and never once suspected that a dark shadow was about to cloak over her future and destroy her blissful days.

* * *

 _February 12th, 10:32 PM_

* * *

 _"Have you been gaining weight, Kotoha?" Himemiya Shizuka murmured to her precious little puppy, unable to keep the hilarity from showing in her voice or on her countenance. She was lying on her back atop a bed that was not hers. Her body was decently covered by an indigo nightgown, her skin and hair still moist from the relaxing bath she just took. Her head was resting comfortably atop a pair of forearms, slim and soft, the owner of which was lying on her stomach atop her front. She was a girl one year Shizuka's junior, a girl whose voluptuous curves were clad in a simple persimmon-colored pajama, and a girl so light she could have stayed on top of Shizuka all night and she would never have minded. This amazingly cute girl was Himemiya Kotoha, Shizuka's little sister, the one she adored with all her heart._

 _"I have not!" the younger Himemiya protested in feigned indignation. "I just checked. I lost one pound!" Her slim waist lovingly encircled by Shizuka's arms, the cute little puppy had a side of her face laid upon an upper arm of hers and the tip of her nose rubbing gently against Shizuka's cheek._

 _Every evening Shizuka would perform her nightly ritual by coming into her sister's room to do homework, watch television, or just converse with her on how her day had been. Every evening, Shizuka somehow would end up in bed with the girl with the golden braid, cuddle her, hold her, and occasionally offer mild kisses to her smooth cheeks. Recently the younger Himemiya seemed to have developed a strong penchant for lying on top of Shizuka, brushing the long and tidy tail of her hair, and sometimes even falling asleep in the same position with her lips unconsciously nuzzling Shizuka's face._

 _Neither objective nor impartial she might be, she had to say that she was blessed with the cutest and most affectionate baby sister in the whole wide world._

 _"That scale is wrong," she refused to relent. "You are getting heavier by day. It must have been those sweets you stuff yourself with." She chuckled at that._

 _"Well, if you think I'm heavy," the wingless angel pouted, "I should get off of you before I crush you like grapes." She stirred slightly atop Shizuka's body._

 _"Sorry, sorry." Laughing softly now, she tightened her arms around the body of the fifteen-year-old, not intending to let her climb off anytime soon. She did not think there was a pillow in existence that was half as warm, soft, or fragrant as the one engulfed in the curves of her arms. "I am joking. Joking! But seriously, you like sweets too much for your own good." She lifted a hand to caress the golden braid. It had the texture of silk._

 _"You do too," her cuddly sister pointed out. "You gulped down everything I gave you."_

 _"Because you made them," she replied fondly. "If I did not eat them all, you would be very cross with me, would you not?"_

 _Having inherited Himeko-kaa-san's cooking talents, Kotoha often employed them to experiment with making sweets. She mostly succeeded. Chocolate cookies, brownies, candies, you named it, and she could make it. One good side of it was that Shizuka never had to be afraid of running out of delicious snacks to munch during movies. The bad side of it was that she had to work them off by exercising much more often than a normal person had to._

 _"Good that you know." Kotoha grinned at her. "Speaking of which, though. Do you know what day it is two days from now?"_

 _"Valentine's," she answered with a smile._

 _Her cute little puppy nodded. "What kind of chocolate do you want me to make for you? You had the almond one last year."_

 _"Just plain black chocolate this time," she decided after a moment of pondering. "But make it into some nice shape, ne? A little puppy this time, maybe?"_

 _"I'll be happy to." Kotoha rubbed her nose against Shizuka's cheek. "But I'll want something just as elaborate on White Day, okay? And no, playing a song for me on the flute won't cut it, onee-chan. I wouldn't mind having listening to it after receiving the return gift, though."_

 _"Now you are being unreasonable." Shizuka laughed. "But okay, greedy one, onee-chan will try to think of something."_

 _"Good." The younger Himemiya stuck her tongue out at her. Before she managed to retract it though, Shizuka had already moved in and gave its tip a brief kiss._

 _Her little angel reddened to a sunset, unable to utter a word in response. She laughed, feeling her own cheeks warming up a little at her bold action, which was actually more impulsive than intended. Of all the gestures of sisterly affection they showered one another with before, they surely had not tried that. Not that she regretted it, seeing how much she enjoyed making Kotoha blush. When she did, words failed to describe how adorable she was._

 _"Anyway," she said, "I should go back to my room. Time to go to bed."_

 _"You can't go yet," announced her precious sibling, who pulled out her arms from beneath Shizuka and used her hands to pin those of Shizuka on either side of her head. The girl's gorgeous face was an inch atop Shizuka's own, her little nose issuing breaths that were as warm as a fire in a winter night and fragrant as an orchid flower, her pink and cute lips compressed into a thin line. The younger Himemiya's ample chest pressed atop hers and hammered with hers in an erratic and chaotic rhythm._

 _"What do you want from me?" Shizuka feigned ignorance._

 _"Something you tell me every night before you go to bed." Deep amethyst eyes gazed into her sapphire. They were brimming with love._

 _"Okay, okay." She chuckled aloud._

 _Quietly, the little puppy turned her head and lowered an ear down toward Shizuka's mouth. There, she whispered the ritual words._

* * *

Shizuka's blood simmered at the memories. Prior to the fateful day in which she was ruthlessly forced to confront her tumultuous heart, she had never held back from showering the younger Himemiya with physical intimacy and thought of it as no more than a proper display of sisterly affections. Kotoha had been so pleased to accept her more than fond gestures, she had delighted so greatly in receiving them, and she had been so eager to reciprocate that Shizuka never thought of what she did as crossing a line she never should have.

"Since you don't even want to be near me anymore," Kotoha's voice started to show signs of breaking, "you must have come to hate me a lot, onee-chan." She scrubbed at her face with her dainty hands. In defiance of her efforts, tears still rolled down her cheeks.

Shizuka staggered a step backward. Upon deciding to distance herself from her little angel, she assumed that only by doing so could she preserve her sanity and prevent her little sister from discovering her ghastly secret. She honestly did not think that her actions had badly hurt the girl she loved. She never meant it to happen. She never wanted those tears to be shed. _But Gods above, what choices have I?_

"Of course not!" she exclaimed. "What can I do to convince you that I am not lying, Kotoha?"

The golden-haired girl gazed up at her with a tear-drenched face. "Speak the words I like to hear again," she said. "I can tell whether you mean it."

"But... but..." Shizuka stammered, flustered.

"Is it because they aren't true anymore that you can't," the younger Himemiya wept openly, "or is it because you don't want to, onee-chan?"

Her mind went blank at the realization that the situation was getting worse.

Hurriedly, she pulled the girl one year her junior into a hug. The crying immediately ceased and the air wreathing them shimmered with heat as she put her mouth next to an ear of the girl she had spent her life falling in love with but never noticed. The words of her nightly ritual, abandoned months ago by an incident she did not foresee, rushed out of her lips.

 _"I love you, Kotoha,"_ she whispered with all the honesty she could muster. _"I care about you more than myself, more than our parents, more than anybody else in the world."_ By the time she had uttered the final word, her heart was racing so fast she feared it might give in.

Upon pulling back and releasing the little puppy from her embrace, she found herself agape. Her first love, in whose innocence and pristine mind always smiled in joy whenever she heard those words, was now blushing within an inch of her life with her hands on her cheeks. Her amethyst eyes were wide in shock, her mouth working continuously but producing not a sound. She was the quintessence of cuteness.

"What... what is wrong?" Shizuka asked, surprised by the sixteen-year-old's reaction. "Did I not say it truthfully enough?"

"No, no!" Her sweetheart shook her head hastily, tears no longer gushing out of the wells of her eyes. "I... I believe you, onee-chan. It's just that... just that..." Her voice faltered. She fell quiet and lowered her amethyst gaze to the ground. Her ears were very red.

"I... am sorry I made you cry," Shizuka mumbled breathlessly. She would have said more, too, had the love of her life not raised her head and looked up at her with a strange light shining in her eyes. The rest of what Shizuka wanted to utter got stuck in her throat.

Absolute silence ensued.

"I... I'm going to bed first," Kotoha murmured diffidently after a while. Embarrassment was the heartbeat of her words, the color of her tone, and the timbre of her songbird voice. "Don't stay out here for too long, ne? I'll see you tomorrow." The more she spoke, the quicker and more flustered her voice grew. "Goodnight, onee-chan." The adorable sixteen-year-old stepped past Shizuka and hurried toward her room.

Standing near the pool with the towel given to her by her sweetheart still draping across her shoulder, Himemiya Shizuka was dumbfounded. _What... just happened here?_

* * *

"What you taught her worked well," Himemiya Chikane remarked to her faithful companion, Himemiya Himeko, who never looked a day beyond twenty-five. The two of them were standing at the balustrade of their balcony, both grinning at what they had just witnessed from the second floor. Earlier, Chikane and her beautiful wife were discussing aspects of an upcoming concert tour in Asia when they heard voices echoing into their room. Curious, they walked to the balcony, where they overheard their daughters' conversation.

Suffice to say, Chikane was glad that she did.

"Seeing how flustered Kotoha was," the golden-haired woman said, chuckling, "I'd say that the lie gave her much more than what she had bargained for."

"A good thing," Chikane decided. "Shizuka was wrong when she thought she could diminish her feelings by distancing herself from Kotoha. Perhaps by the time this is all over, she will have learned what it means by _'Absence makes the heart grow fonder'_."

"You know, Chikane-chan, I have an idea..." The other mother of the girls then proceeded to tell her the general outline of what she came up with. "What do you think?"

"It sounds like what you can take from a shoujo manga," she teased. "But knowing our daughters, it might work. I will make the phone call tomorrow morning."

Sooner or later, little Kotoha would learn that the adage Chikane just quoted did _not_ apply to her onee-chan alone. When that happened, she would not see Shizuka in the same light ever again. If the Gods were willing, Chikane might be able to reclaim one room from either of her daughters and convert it into a photo studio for her sweetheart.


	2. Hidden Emotions

**_CHAPTER TWO: HIDDEN EMOTIONS._**

* * *

 _Tuesday, June 23rd, 12:05 PM._

* * *

Seated beneath the wide branches of an ancient gingko tree and atop the grassy ground of the Ototachibana campus, Himemiya Kotoha didn't notice her boyfriend calling until he tapped on her shoulder and interrupted her trance, bringing her back to reality. It was only then were her senses of hearing and sight and smell restored, allowing her eyes to take in the lush green of the school yard, her ears to drink in the chattering of the students nearby, and her nose to breath in the mouthwatering aroma of the lunchbox Himeko had prepared for her before classes.

"You've been spacing out since coming here, Kotoha," Oogami Mikoto observed. "If you don't intend to eat your food, give me your obentou. I feel bad for my mom, but yours is a way better cook."

Although his mom and dad favored short hair, Mikoto boasted a long and wide stream of darkness all the way to his waist that reminded Kotoha of the High Priest of the Oogami Shrine, whom her boyfriend considered his mentor. His countenance was that of an androgyny, bearing both feminine and masculine traits, which made his face that of an extremely handsome boy or a very pretty girl depending on the angle in which one would look. He often joked that it was because both genes he inherited from Souma and Makoto were dominant, and since neither could suppress the other, they both showed on him.

Thanks to the androgen in him, he was as popular as her onee-chan was on this campus even without taking his talents at tennis into account. There were girls who envied Kotoha to the point they put hate-mails in her shoe locker. While their contents were very disturbing, she accepted them for the price she must pay for being the love interest of the most famous boy of Ototachibana Academy.

Nevertheless, she was tired of the pointed attention she received from other girls on campus. She often wished they would not look at her the same way they would someone who massacred their families.

"Sorry, I was thinking about something." she told Mikoto in a rueful tone. "And no, you can't have my food." She stuck her tongue out at him. He laughed.

"So, what's on your mind?" he asked curiously, the shiny emerald eyes he inherited from his mom glancing playfully at the crab croquettes in her lunchbox.

"You know what happened between me and onee-chan since a while ago, right?" She took a small tamagoyaki roll out from her obentou and lifted it to her boyfriend's mouth. He gave her a wry look, but he let her feed it to him and chew on it quietly before nodding. "Yesterday I managed to talk to her a little bit. I asked her to be the model for a... drawing so that I had an excuse to be close to her again." She did intend to include the word _"nude,"_ yet somehow it was stuck midway up her throat and ended up being swallowed down. She had an inkling that the boy wasn't going to sit well with the idea that she was going to draw her onee-chan without a stitch covering her body. As to why she assumed so, she had no clue.

"Did she refuse you?" he asked, sounding as though he had already anticipated the answer.

"Actually," she hesitated, "she agreed."

He blinked. "That's interesting," he assessed. "I didn't think she would." Light of comprehension dawned on his androgynous face. "Was that why you've been spacing out? Because you were so surprised that she granted your request?"

She shook her head. "It's because of something she said afterwards."

"What might that be?" he inquired, interested.

"Ah... well," she cleared her throat, "we had a chat and I sorta... became agitated at how she kept avoiding me. I told her she must not like me anymore. One thing led to another and... she ended up saying that she loved me." The memories brought forth a wonderfully pleasant flame that raged on her cheeks. Her onee-chan's words, all musical notes produced from the finest instruments, rang melodiously in her ears. Gods, but she couldn't believe that she had spent hours blushing last night because her elder sister told her something she should have taken for granted.

Mikoto gave her a puzzled look. "And how is _that_ disturbing?"

"It's the way she said it." Face aflame, she lowered her gaze to the boxed lunch sitting on her lap. She thumbed an earlobe. "She... reminded me of you when you confessed to me, Mii-chan."

The only difference was that at the time of Mikoto's confession, she was perfectly calm albeit slightly taken aback – she always assumed he would eventually ask Shizuka out – while she blushed harder and became tipsier with every syllable her beloved onee-chan dripped into her ear. Gods, but it _did_ sound like a confession, especially when the elder Himemiya's words were coated in honey and containing the heat of a thousand flames. Until this moment, she had yet to figure out the reason why she couldn't she get the image of her sweet onee-chan, who was glorious in her bikini, out of her head.

"I see," her boyfriend murmured noncommittally. His face was as readable as a rock. "So that's what disturbed you." His emerald eyes were shining with a strange light.

She shook her head again. "Not disturbed, I think," she murmured. "I was just... puzzled as to why onee-chan's been avoiding me lately although she," heat flared stronger than ever in her cheeks seemingly without reason, "loves me as much as she used to." The same fear, intangible and vague as it was, forced her to omit how overjoyed she had become after realizing how honest Shizuka had sounded while reiterating those affectionate words. She never imagined how someone professing their love to her could have produced such an effect.

"We all have things we can't share with even our family members, Kotoha," he pointed out in a gentle voice. "It's best to leave her alone until she is comfortable enough to disclose what lies in her heart."

She blinked at her boyfriend. _I thought he'd give the same advice as Hi-kaa-chan. Why?_

"Anyways," he cleared his throat, "do you want to go to a movie with me on Thursday evening? My classmates recommended one to me earlier. They said it was really good." It sounded a blatant attempt to change the topic. An uncomfortable one at that.

"Sure," she agreed. "I'll ask onee-chan if she wants to go with us. The more the merrier, ne?"

"Ah..." Mikoto nodded slowly. "Of course." It might have been but a figment of her imagination, but she thought there was a hint of reluctance in his words.

"You haven't been going home with Shizuka lately, right?" her boyfriend asked suddenly.

"No," she confirmed. "She has a late practice session with the music club every evening. Otoha-san picked me up and drove me home first."

"I see," the boy murmured.

Silence haunted the remaining of the lunch break. It didn't bother Kotoha too much because soon after her boyfriend's half-hearted reply, she drifted back into her reverie while tastelessly chewing on her food. Neither did she hear the bell signifying the second half of class nor did she realize that she had finished her lunchbox, leaving only a few grains of rice untouched.

The rest of the day flew by quickly. Partly it was because there wasn't much to do during the World History and Classic Literature class, the teachers of which put up their lectures online beforehand and read monotonously from the PowerPoint slides during class. Partly... it was because she devoted almost all three periods to daydreaming. She grinned to herself at how she would be able to spend time with her beloved onee-chan later in the evening. She pondered as to what posture she should ask Shizuka to assume so that she could make the perfect drawing of her. She tried to come up with topics to converse with the elder Himemiya about while staying in her room.

Before she knew it, the school bells had rung and set off the students' exodus toward the school gates. One instant, she was sitting on the backseat of a sleek silver Mercedes, driven by her beloved Chi-kaa-chan herself, as it cruised along a bustle highway of Mahoroba. In the next, she was in her room and slipping off her Ototachibana uniform. She could have sworn that not even a heartbeat had passed when she found herself at the dining table and chatting merrily with her moms over food. Her memories, which was very good normally, didn't retain much of the rest of the evening... until the clock hanging on a wall in her room struck seven and the door next to hers opened and locked into place, announcing that the azure-haired girl had returned from practice.

The human mind worked in mysterious ways. While her afternoon had passed so quickly it could have been a rocket being launched into space, the hands of time had ticked on so slowly during the next one hour that it could have been a snail trying to overcome a distance of a thousand feet. Seated on her bed with a Chemistry textbook spread across her knees but not really paying attention to it, she tried not to squirm in frustration, unable to stop herself from staring at the clock on the wall and begging it to hurry so that she could knock on her onee-chan's door and try to cultivate their relationship back to how it used to be.

She tossed and turned on her bed. She tried to convince herself that maybe Shizuka wouldn't mind if she came over forty-five minutes early. She was so agitated she threw the Chemistry text onto the floor and devoted her restless time to stroking her new sketchbook. She more than once caught herself uttering the word _"onee-chan"_ in a tone so caressing it didn't seem like she was calling her elder sister at all.

The entire experience was similar to a visit to a dentist office in that anticipation, empowered by the heartwarming memories of their conversation by the pool the previous night, was boring mercilessly into her heart the same way a sanitized drill would into an already aching tooth. It was torturous. It was unbearable. It was... inexplicable. Her face rapidly heated up. It was like a... desperate longing one might experience when separated from her sweetheart.

She suddenly became aware of how embarrassed she was at the strange comparison.

Not that she knew what that longing was like aside from often seeing it dramatically portrayed in the run-of-the-mill shoujo manga. Despite having dated Mikoto for months, she never experienced such a thing. Not even when he had to leave town for a week for an athletic meet somewhere in Tokyo and could only talk to her on the phone at night. She did miss and look forward to seeing him back, but she hadn't been once struck by something so intense, so raw, and so compelling. Were her emotions during the days in which Mikoto was out of her sight to be described as a candle flame, what burned in her heart right now was a wildfire spreading through a dry forest.

She noted it was odd how she could feel so strongly toward her blood sister.

The clock struck eight.

Bounding to her feet with the sketchbook in her arms, Kotoha hurried out of her room. She had been so eager to see her precious onee-chan and so desperate to admire the beauty of the azure-haired girl, and yet she froze like a statue in breathlessness the moment the elder Himemiya opened the door and greeted her in a usual indigo nightgown and unbuttoned long-sleeved coat. Her onee-chan's hair and skin were still moist from the bath, her entire body radiating an overwhelming fragrance that was a pleasant mix of the herbal shampoo and her natural scent. No cologne smelled better than that.

"Come in," the taller girl invited, her voice taut with emotions Kotoha couldn't identify.

Dazed, she followed her onee-chan inside, noting to herself in wonderment what four months of being estranged from the latter could have changed her image. Right now, she saw Himemiya Shizuka as someone very dear to her heart yet at the same time so... unfamiliar in more than one way.

"Have a seat wherever you like," said Shizuka. "I will need to finish this homework first." Giving Kotoha a look that could have meant anything, she sat down at her desk and began to let her mechanical pencil dance – there was no better word to describe that elegant flowing motion – atop a notebook. Her face was tense, the corners of her mouth tight, and her sapphire pupils so intent on not glancing in Kotoha's direction the girl could have just stared.

Idly pondering why her presence was having such a strange effect on Shizuka, Kotoha sat down on one of the couches and surveyed the room's interior, feeling a sense of nostalgia rummaging through her heart. She lived here when she was a kid. She used to share the same bed with her beloved onee-chan when she was still too young to take care of herself. When the time came for her to go to bed, she used to lay cuddled in Shizuka's arms, so warm and soft and loving she had never experienced trouble falling asleep.

It was what she regretted leaving behind the most upon being granted a room all to herself. The freedom she acquired couldn't compensate the sleepless nights, the nightmares, and the solitude she faced every waking moment atop her bed. She grew accustomed to it in time, but sometimes she couldn't help wishing she could share a bed once more with the cute girl she cherished. Childishness was what it was, she always thought.

"Are you... done, onee-chan?" she asked in hesitation upon seeing the elder Himemiya put down her pencil and closed her notebook.

"Ah... yes." Shizuka stiffly rose to her feet, her gorgeous face clouded by a screen of what seemed apprehension. "Let us get it over with, then."

During the last sixteen years of her life, Himemiya Kotoha never once imagined that she could be mesmerized by the sight of another girl slipping out of her clothes. Or how furiously her face could burn.

Once the blue-haired beauty had taken off her long-sleeved coat and folded it neatly atop a couch, she gently pushed the straps of her indigo nightgown off of her shoulders, allowing the clothing article to fall onto the carpeted floor. When she stepped out of it, the only thing left on her was a pair of lacy white panties that tightly snuggled the region between her lithesome thighs. The rest of her magnificent body was without a stitch.

Kotoha's heart made a loud thump in her chest. _Has she always been this beautiful?_

Despite being a girl who was blessed with more or less the same voluptuous figure, she couldn't stop herself from marveling at the statuesque wonder standing before her now. Most prominent on her onee-chan's breathtaking body stood twinned nipples light coral-pink in shade and already stiffened by the cool air of the completely sealed chamber. These cherries – there existed no more apt a metaphor – looked ripe and delicious. They seemed to invite a pair of lips to engulf them and a tongue to weigh them, taste them, and tease them for all they were worth. Their very sight pumped blood to Kotoha's face and ignited a flame incinerating the pit of her stomach.

Crowned by the succulently erected nipples, a wonder unto themselves, were areolas much darker in color that stood proudly atop a pair of sensuous breasts not many men, or maybe even women, might be able to resist. They were no larger than hers, but her amethyst eyes assured her that they were much rounder and perkier. She wanted to reach out and cup those oh so firm orbs of perfection. She wouldn't mind caressing them with the tips of her fingers, discovering how round or firm they actually were with the palms of her hands, and maybe even worshipping them with her lips.

Nestled between Shizuka's gorgeous breasts was a deep valley running along her sternum and eventually giving way to a flat heavenly field that was her abdomen. It looked smooth like silk. It was so even that there was no hiding place for any extra fat. Its slightly muscled surface, the result of countless hours of swimming in the pool, gave the currently bare midriff of the elder of the Himemiya siblings an extremely attractive and enthralling tautness that elegantly tapered as it traveled down south, along the sensuous bikini lines, and eventually disappeared beneath the lacy white panties.

Horror seized her and repeatedly stabbed her in the gut. _For goodness's sake, what am I thinking?_ a voice screamed at the back of her head the moment she realized what thoughts had passed through her mind while she was busy appreciating the pristine splendor of her onee-chan. She thought she had just been dumped with a bucketful of chilled water.

Her shock was short-lived. Flames raged beneath her skin once more as the regal being in front of her removed the last of her undergarment. Graceful even in disrobing, Shizuka slipped her thumbs beneath the waistband of the thin piece of cloth and slowly bent down as she pushed her panties along her toned legs. The sound of cotton sliding on skin was so sensual, so arousing, and so audible in this quiet chamber Kotoha inadvertently hugged her sketchbook closer to her body and bringing her knees together as close as she could to stop the series of tingles being produced within her depth. She thought she was going insane the instant the pair of panties slipped off her princely onee-chan's body and revealed her most private part.

Neither _"gorgeous"_ nor _"beautiful"_ was sufficient to describe what she managed to glimpse briefly before those thighs closed firmly and concealed her elder sister's most precious treasure. In that split second, her amethyst eyes had taken in the full glorious view of a blossom yet to bloom but already more stunning than any in the garden of the roses. The flower's petals seemed so soft and fluffy they could probably melt inside a yearning mouth. The gentle cleft separating them were more than just inviting to the tip of a tongue. Its crown jewel, cute and possessing the light pink shade of a Maiden's Blush, begged to be taken between a pair of loving lips, where it could be kissed, caressed, and suckled until it grew to its fullest and summoned the lightning singing in its every nerves.

Kotoha was amazed.

"What..." her onee-chan inquired, her voice barely a whisper, "what should I do?" A slender arm of hers draped across her captivating bosom. A hand decently covered the treasure between her taut thighs. Her cheeks were suffused with blood. Her lucent sapphire gems were avoiding Kotoha's amethyst ones in such an assiduous manner it hurt. The long and narrow tail of her hair was very still.

"Um..." Kotoha's throat was dry, her face so hot she wanted to dip it into a bucket of iced water. "Lie down on one side on the bed, please, onee-chan?" The word tasted very strange on her tongue.

A gloriously nude Himemiya Shizuka did as suggested. If she was arrestingly beautiful when on her feet, she was irresistibly so atop the bed with a side of her gorgeous face rested on a soft pillow, with a complexion stained by the crimson shade of shyness, with most of her breasts blocked by the curves of her arms, and with her most private place hidden between her toned legs.

A fit of raging jealousy seized Kotoha. It would have to be an extremely blessed person to be able to marry her beautiful onee-chan, claim her as their own, kiss her whenever they wanted, make love to her every night, and receive the happiness Kotoha was sure only the azure-haired girl could bring to whomever she wed. The thought and its boldness startled her anew.

"Kotoha?" Shizuka whispered softly. "Is it okay if I close my eyes?" It was more of a plea than a request. Without her clothes shielding her from other people's eyes, she seemed so fragile, so diffident, and so weak one couldn't help but want to protect her, love her, and shelter her for all eternity.

"Yes, onee-chan," she heard herself answer.

"Thank you..." Eyelids closed over sapphire gems. Full and curvaceous chest rose and fell in an erratic rhythm beneath folded arms. Thighs rubbed together as though trying to conceal even more of her precious region. She was arousing beyond words.

Kotoha stared at the unblemished form of the elder Himemiya for another five minutes until she realized she must do what she had come in here for. Hastily, she opened her sketchbook, took out the pencil nested within, and began a process that had come to her as naturally as breathing, which, for reasons she couldn't grasp, all of a sudden became no less difficult than lifting a mountain with her bare hands.

She constantly lost focus, found her pencil-wielding hand going still as her eyes locked dead upon the curves of her sister's body, or made horrifying mistakes that ruined the entire sketch and forced her to flip to a new page. The process was repeated so many times and to no avail that in the end she became frustrated at her own incompetence and decided to stop and apologize to Shizuka for having wasted her time. As soon as she closed her sketchbook and looked up once again at the dazzling girl, glorious in her nakedness, lying atop the bed, she realized in astonishment that the latter was already immersed in a deep slumber. The color on her cheeks had faded, the motions of her chest lost their erratic rhythm and gained peacefully even rises and falls in its stead, and her pretty lips opened to let out long and deep breaths.

Smiling in overflowing fondness, Kotoha rose from the couch and settled down on her knees at the edge of the bed, where her elder sister was lying on her side. With her elbows propped atop the mattress and her chin rested on her interlaced hand, she watched Shizuka sleep.

 _She looks so cute when asleep,_ she mused, chuckling softly. In front of pretty much everybody outside of the family, Shizuka wore a mask of ice and serenity so frequently others often mistook it for her true façade and ended up growing nervous in front of her no matter how much they admired her good looks. Right now, she was every inch a sleeping angel. The Ototachibana boys would go mad with desires should they ever see her like this.

"Ko... ha," her onee-chan mumbled in a voice too adorable for words. "Kotoha..."

She blushed hotly at her sister's caressing tone. For the last four months now, the elder Himemiya had been calling her name with a tone at best cool and somewhat emotionless. Now, she sounded warm, she sounded fond, she sounded affectionate, and she sounded like she was addressing someone she loved. _Why is she calling my name in her sleep anyway?_ Her heart picked up its pace. She blushed. _Is she dreaming of me?_

As if possessed, she watched herself climb onto the bed. Carefully lest she woke the person who yesterday just told her that she loved her and cared for her more than anybody else in the world, Kotoha eased herself into lying opposite her precious sister. On her side now with her head resting on one of Shizuka's arms and her waist encircled by the other, she found herself in a tight embrace of the most good-looking girl in the world and blushing within an inch of her life. Being so close to the elder Himemiya, she could feel her gushing warmth, her overpowering scent, and the amazing firmness of her breasts, pressing and rising and falling against hers in a most seductive manner.

Still dazed, Kotoha decided to keep her hands to herself. If she put them on the svelte body of Shizuka, she wouldn't be able to stop them from wandering and tracing these captivating curves. _Calm down, Kotoha!_ she reprimanded herself and tried to relax within the arms of the girl she cherished. It was much more difficult than she thought.

"Kotoha," her onee-chan whispered again, more drowsily this time but no less clear or caressing. "I love you, Kotoha..." Honesty was one of the many things she perceived in those words.

Her heart went still. Her eyes misted. Her frame shivered.

"If you love me so much you see me in your dreams, onee-chan," she murmured tearfully as her right hand rose and gently touched the blue-haired girl's slightly opened mouth, "why have you been shunning me?" Her fingers caressed the elder Himemiya's lips. They were like velvet, although there could be no velvet so warm and soft and moist. "How long has it been since you last kissed me with those lips?"

Her hand quietly departed from the lovely cherry petals... but instead of falling back to her side, it moved toward her face. Next she knew, she was lightly and attentively kissing the tips of the fingers that had outlined the blue-haired beauty's mouth as though she wanted to taste the sweetness and moistness they had absorbed. Upon realizing what she was doing, she gave a small start and colored so rapidly she thought her face was going to explode. Her fingers remained on her lips.

 _What am I doing?_ she asked herself ruefully, awfully aware of the gushes of hot, short breaths her nose was issuing into the small gap separating their lips. _There's no rule forbidding me from kissing onee-chan... on the mouth, is there?_ Of course not, it was just that not many girls did such a thing regardless of how close they could be to their sisters. _Besides,_ her mind wandered the realm of her fondest memories, _not that I haven't done it before, right...?_

* * *

 _April 23rd, 8:59 PM, eleven years ago._

* * *

 _Himemiya Kotoha, who turned five a couple of days ago, always considered herself a lucky child. Her parents, two wonderful mothers whose devotion toward her was more than enough to make her forget the taunts of other kids her age, adored her and taught her the wonders of the world. Although she could make no friends in the neighborhood, not one that wouldn't stop pointing out in jealousy that she lacked a father in her life anyway, she lived in the same room with someone in whose presence she was guaranteed protection, friendship, and love. She was sitting with her back leaning against that person's front and having her arms encircling her waist at the moment, all four eyes locked on the huge television hanging on the wall opposite the bed. The pretty and kind girl with azure flowing hair like Chi-kaa-chan's, only a year older than Kotoha, was her onee-chan, her best friend, and someone to whom she had pledged her eternal love._

 _Kotoha loved being cuddled by her onee-chan in bed. She liked to have the elder Himemiya's arms around her and hugging her tight. Wherever her Shii-chan was, her sanctuary was, and even the darkness she was ever afraid of would seem to be much less frightful. She often felt guilty toward her mothers because she loved onee-chan even more than she loved them._

 _"What do you want to watch next, Ko-chan?" Shii-chan murmured next to her ear, the former's hand gesturing at their favorite show on TV, which had just ended._

 _She thumbed an earlobe and tried to think of a program both she and onee-chan would like to watch._

 _"Channel sixty-eight?" she suggested._

 _"The Anime Network?"_ _Shii-chan asked, sounding puzzled. "What does it have at this time?"_

 _"Um..." she tapped her lips, trying to catch a name that had been eluding her, "that one show about the two miko-san and the robots?"_

 _"Ah, right." Her onee-chan grabbed the remote control on the mattress and punched the buttons with her tiny fingertips._

 _What flashed into the big screen of the TV wasn't the familiar Anime Network. What she was seeing was the interior of a... Her mind paused. What was that really difficult word for the place people liked to get inside and pray to some scary God again? Right, a church. Yes, a church, where a tall man in black and a tiny woman in white were standing face to face in front of a very old man in a bulky white robe, which she assumed was very hot and uncomfortable during Mahoroba's scorching summers._

 _Kotoha knew enough of the world to realize that the young man and the woman, groom and bride they called them, were getting married. He was leaning down toward her, his hands lifting her see-through veil. In the end, he kissed her on the lips. The other people in the... um... church stood up and clapped really hard the instant before the TV flashed again and the logo of the Anime Network flickered into life on its flat screen._

 _"Sorry," apologized onee-chan. "I pressed number nine instead of eight."_

 _"Ne, Shii-chan?"_ _She turned her head and tugged at the other girl's sleeves. They both wore pajamas. Hers was crimson red, Shii-chan's indigo blue. "Why didn't you ever kiss me on the mouth?" she asked wonderingly. Her forehead, her eyelids, her nose, her cheeks, and even her chin all received her onee-chan's lips at least once on an hourly basis. Never her mouth._

 _The other girl tilted her head and stared at the TV. "I am not allowed to, right?" she said after a moment of silence. "I thought people only did that after they got married. Like Himeko-kaa-san and Chikane-kaa-san."_

 _"Really?"_ _She pouted dejectedly. "I guess I'll have to wait for thirteen more years then."_

 _"What do you mean, Ko-chan?" The elder Himemiya blinked at her, confused._

 _"Do you forget what you told me on your sixth birthday already, Shii-chan?" she asked. "You know, when I gave you the present?" She liked to draw, and her mothers told her she was very good at it, so she had sketched a picture of her onee-chan and presented it to her the night she turned six._

 _"I said I was going to be your bride when we grew up." The elder Himemiya smiled at her and hugged her more tightly. Kotoha had been so overjoyed by the honest declaration she burst into tears._

 _"I want to be yours too," she said emphatically. "But Chi-kaa-chan said I couldn't get married until I was eighteen. That's thirteen years from now. That's a long time to wait just for a kiss."_

 _The blue-haired girl gazed at her for a while. "Can I be honest with you, Ko-chan?"_

 _She nodded, eager to hear what her onee-chan had to say._

 _"I do not think I can wait that long either," she confessed. "I really want to kiss you here." Her tiny forefinger rubbed affectionately on Kotoha's lips. "Our mothers said a kiss on the lips was the best way to show someone that you loved them." She swallowed audibly, her sapphire eyes shining like the stars on high. "I love you very much, Ko-chan."_

 _Slowly, Kotoha turned around and settled on her knees between her beloved onee-chan's legs._

 _"I love you too, Shii-chan," she confessed. "Can't we just ignore that silly rule?"_

 _"I think just once is okay," her onee-chan said with a smile. "Will you be willing to wait until we get married after that?"_

 _She nodded her head so vehemently she thought it'd fall off her neck._

 _"Then close your eyes, Ko-chan," her future bride whispered softly._

 _She did and even lifted her face a little bit so that she could better receive what she wanted the most. Not too long afterward, something very soft descended on her lips. Something as hot as a fire welled uncontrollably in her and spread across her body all the way to her fingers and toes. Moisture stung in her nostrils. Unshed tears marred her darkened vision. Honey invaded her sense of taste._

 _She never imagined how wonderful it would feel to be kissed on the mouth by the one she loved. She could never have fathomed the panic that gripped her the moment her precious Shii-chan pulled away. She never understood the meaning of the word_ "blush" _prior to the meeting of their lips. Now, she did. To blush meant the same thing as to set her face on fire._

 _"I kinda liked that," the older girl murmured afterwards. "How about you, Ko-chan?"_

 _She was so speechless all she could do was nod. As a child, she didn't have many words at her disposal, and none of them would have sufficed to describe the wonderful sensation she was blessed with._

 _"They are airing the anime right now, so why don't you turn around and watch it with me?" suggested her soon-to-be bride. She sounded a bit breathless and flustered. And a little shy._

 _Kotoha obeyed her onee-chan, but she couldn't put her mind to watching the show they both loved. Her minds refused to register the words the characters spoke in the anime. Her eyes retained no image. Her memories of the miko-san were blank. Her lips were still very hot._

 _Unable to keep quiet any longer, she turned her head and begged, "Just one more time, Shii-chan, please? I promise I won't ask for a third..."_

 _A second kiss formed even before she finished her sentence. It lasted twice as long as the first. When it ended, she thought she would cry._

* * *

Kotoha blushed harder than ever at the memories, which, incredibly enough, had managed to stay intact in defiance of the passage of time.

It was childish of them to have wanted to become one another's bride. It was silly of her to have believed that they could only kiss on the lips after they got married. But nevertheless, it was a fond piece of memories that usually made her smile upon recollection.

But then, it also made her question herself numerous times for the last few months. Why was it that she couldn't bring herself to tell Mikoto that she loved him while she seemed to have no problem saying it to her blood sister? Why did she always flinch away when he tried to kiss her on the lips? She had no answers. And worse, what transpired by the pool last night had added one more question to the pile.

 _Why do you unsettle me so, onee-chan?_ a voice whispered in her head as she trembled within the embrace of the sleeping beauty. She had a feeling that she wouldn't want that answered anytime soon.

Mind bustling with thoughts, she slipped out of the embrace of her gorgeous model, put a blanket over her nude form to shield her against the coolness of a night in June, turned off the light at the door, and gave her a fleeting look before Kotoha left.

More than once did she consider going back to her onee-chan's room and asked her for a kiss on the lips that night. Every time, she would bury her face in the pillow and try to sleep.

She stayed awake until the morning. Not once did Mikoto's androgynous face popped up in her head. Her vision contained the afterimage of one person and one alone. Himemiya Shizuka. The onee-chan she wanted to marry when she was a kid. The girl she had yielded her first kiss to. The most important person in her world.

* * *

 _Wednesday, June 24th, 11:58 AM._

* * *

Oogami Mikoto had just left his classroom and was about to walk down to Kotoha's classroom on the second floor – his was on the fourth – like he did every lunch break when he spotted the girl with the golden braid approaching from the east end of the fairly crowded hallway. Like him, she was holding a carefully cloth-wrapped obentou in her hands. It was fairly unusual to say the least. Much as he loved his adorable girlfriend, he had to admit that she completely loathed physical exertion and totally relied on her super-high metabolism to keep herself from gaining weight. The fact that the girl took the time and effort climbing two flights of stairs – the elevators were under maintenance since the morning – to see him was in itself something to marvel at. He swelled with happiness where he stood.

His joy increased ten-fold the instant he saw brimming eagerness and unsuppressed anticipation written across her lovely face. _Has she finally warmed up to me?_ he mused. _Have my efforts finally paid off?_ The younger of the Himemiya siblings hadn't acted any different toward him since his confession a few months aside from the fact that she ate lunch with him exclusively, went out with him anytime he asked her, and allowed him to call her cell phone at nights and talk as much as he wished. Heck, she never once told him she loved him even though he had reiterated the three-word phrase quite a few times. Nor did she ever let him kiss her on any place other than her cheeks. He had assumed that her innate shyness was what keeping her from showing her affections to him. Or so he hoped.

"Hey, Kotoha," he greeted her with a smile on his lips. Somewhere in the background he heard some girl he did not know let out a shrill cry of excitement and subsequently fall onto the floor in a loud thud – whether because of him or not he didn't really want to know, or care – but he shoved everything except from his pretty girlfriend out of his mind. The girl, sweating a little now, had just pulled into a stop in front of him. Her breathing was ragged, her knees trembling. She was definitely out of shape.

"Now isn't this a rare sight?" he teased her, barely aware of the pointed attention blatantly thrown at him by the other boys in his class. Kotoha might not be aware, but it was well-known that her popularity with upperclassmen was on the same level as that of her elder sister. Not many bode well with the fact that Mikoto had her all to himself now, and he suspected that a number of them would have tried to pick fights with him had it not been for the knowledge that he could beat them to a pulp. He certainly didn't look it, being blade-slender and androgynous and all, but he learned how to fight from his father. Oogami Souma could defeat ten armed men with his bare hands.

"Why climb up here when I have to go down anyway?" he added.

She blinked at him and kept silent for at least thirty seconds, looking awfully reluctant to say anything, before she decided to speak up, "Is onee-chan inside, Mii-chan?" Guilt racked her voice.

 _Oh dear,_ he thought ruefully. _I should have guessed._ Even though he was an only child and didn't really know how siblings would act toward one another, he could tell that the adoration that his girlfriend harbored toward the older Himemiya – despite the latter's sudden and _seemingly_ inexplicable withdrawal – was way more intense than what he ever saw or heard. Sometimes the girl spoke of Shizuka the same way a girl would her... He harshly pushed the thought out of his head.

"She left with another girl in my class already," he allowed. His stomach gave a slight lurch at the various emotions unfolding into life on Kotoha's countenance. He could name all of them, being a boy whose peculiar hobby entailed trying to figure what another person was thinking through what they showed on their face. On his girlfriend's now he saw a thorough mix of apprehension, surprise, and something the existence of which he refused to acknowledge. She unsettled him. Very much.

"Is this... a one time thing or a...?" She lifted a hand to thumb an earlobe, an unconscious gesture signifying that something was weighing on her mind. Interestingly enough, she sounded as though she was puzzled by the strange notes in her tone. She seemed to be questioning why they were there, or how they coalesced in her voice without her knowledge. More unsettling. Quite disturbing.

He peered at her for a full minute, carefully choosing his words and pondering his best course of action, and gave her a smile. "It's been like that for the last three weeks."

His casual tone did a whole lot of damage, he noted mentally. Kotoha's face went a trifle pale. Very interesting, he thought. Of all the subjects that he ever tested his emotion-reading skill on, the girl with the golden braid was the best target to practice with. Wearing her heart on her sleeve all the times, she was often surprised because he could pinpoint exactly what was going on in her innocent heart.

"Ah, I see," she muttered in the end. She sounded uneasy. "Anyways," she shook her pretty head probably in an attempt to dispel her thoughts, "shall we go?" She smelled of disappointment. He was willing to bet his lunch that the girl had come up here because she wanted to invite Shizuka along.

Sometimes he thought his calm personality bordered on preternaturalness. Kazuki-ji-san often praised him for his wonderful temperament, a quality often compared to his father's hotheadedness, but this was too much. He should feel threatened, providing that he was aware of Shizuka's secret. He should be boiling inside, seeing how his girlfriend was acting so strangely. But no, he was perfectly unperturbed.

"Sure." He smiled gently at her, took her hand, and led her toward the stairs.

A five-minute walk brought them to the school yard. Kotoha was surprised they were traveling in the opposite direction of the spot where they always had lunch together, but she held her peace and walked by his side in silence.

His wristwatch read twelve fifteen upon their arrival at the school's backyard, where they found two girls sitting on a stone bench with their backs in his direction. Although they sometimes turned their heads toward one another and talked in what suggested a pleasant conversation, neither was aware that they were no longer alone. The one on the left was a pretty girl in glasses whose dark, glossy hair was tied into a long pony tail hanging on a side of her head. The girl she was chatting merrily over lunch with was none other than Himemiya Shizuka, the older sister to his sweetheart.

Mikoto knew he was being very mean to Kotoha but Gods above, he needed to make sure that he wasn't just imagining things in his head. He had to know whether he still stood a chance in this whole ordeal. His opponent, whether they meant to compete with him or not, was formidable in that the love they harbored toward his girlfriend was no less intense than his very own. For now, though, he intended to watch the events unfold and ponder carefully before he decided on what course of action he should take.

Heart inhumanly calm despite the maelstrom of thoughts raging in his head, Oogami Mikoto studied his girlfriend out of the corners of his eyes. Her reactions... were going to offer him the information he needed.

* * *

Himemiya Kotoha was having the shock of her life. _Onee-chan...?_ she thought distantly, her mind blank, as her amethyst eyes took in what was going on atop that bench. The dark-haired second-year, pretty in spite of the glasses, were smiling very sweetly toward her stunning classmate as the former picked up something that looked like a piece of tonkatsu in her lunchbox with her chopsticks and lifted it to the latter's delicate mouth. Shizuka's visage was cool and unsmiling, her sapphire eyes gazing straight ahead at the other girl's face, but she accepted what was given her without protest and ate it in silence. Then, astonishingly enough, she would offer in return a roll of tamagoyaki from her own obentou, prepared to her by Himemiya Himeko earlier this the morning, in the same intimate manner.

"Who... is that person?" she asked. Against her will, her right hand rose to place atop her heart. It was only then did she realize she had let go of her obentou from the Gods knew when. It lay atop the grassy ground now, in it all of the wonderful things that her beloved mother had cooked for her. Strangely enough, the thought of bending down and picking it up was most distant in her mind. All she wanted to do at this specific moment was to rip out that organ slowly beating in her chest and see why it was aching so much.

"Aizawa Nanami?" her boyfriend said in a most casual manner, his emerald eyes regarding her calmly. "She's my class representative. A bookworm, but a very worldly one. She only lost to your sister in terms of popularity. You won't believe how many love letters she received a day."

"And you said she had been eating lunch with onee-chan for the last three weeks?" Why was her voice so distant? Why was it so monotonous and without a sign of life? Why did she feel so cold she could have been standing naked in the heart of winter? Her heart went still.

Mikoto nodded. Quietly, he settled himself comfortably on the grassy ground and put his boxed lunch atop his lap. He took the one she dropped, too, and carefully brushed off the dirt on the wrap cloth. Kotoha remained standing. Somehow, it was so difficult to move a muscle. Or even to breathe. _Did dust get into my eyes?_ she wondered absentmindedly. _Why are they stinging? Why are they... so moist?_

"Don't you think they look nice together?" her boyfriend asked, smiling at the two girls sitting on the stone bench. "I heard from my other classmates that the class rep really admired Shizuka." He paused and chuckled. "No, _'admire'_ might be too weak a word."

More than two dozen feet away, Aizawa Nanami had just laid a hand on the long and tidy tail that was Shizuka's hair and stroked it in such a way it yanked Kotoha's heart into her stomach. She used to do that when she and her onee-chan were still the best of friends. She liked to touch the elder Himemiya's hair, silky strands as fine as a thread of gold could be, when they were lying in bed and talked to one another about whatever topic that popped up in their minds.

 _Gods, what is happening to me?_ Her fingertips dug into the breast of her Ototachibana jacket. The jolt of pain that she caused herself was nothing compared to the crushing agony she felt beneath.

"But..." she said, very much frustrated at the lump of something stuck in her throat and smothering her words. "But she... she never mentioned Aizawa-san to me." Was that a needle she felt running in her arteries? Her fingertips dug harder into her chest. _It hurts._ She wished that bespectacled second-year would stop touching her onee-chan's hair. _It hurts so much._ She wished the third-year girl Mikoto classified as a bookworm would sit a little further away from Shizuka. She wished his class rep would stop smiling so affectionately toward the girl Kotoha cherished. The hand hanging at her side curled into a tight fist, its fingernails threatening to break the skin of her palm.

"I'm not surprised," stated Mikoto. "Shizuka's always been the type who keeps everything to herself." He glanced at her. "So, don't be mad, ne?" The smile on his pretty face, which on more than once occasion had made a girl faint, did nothing to alleviate her inexplicably sour mood.

He was wrong about it, though. She knew she wasn't mad because her onee-chan hadn't told her that she was dating another girl. As to why her stomach was doing somersaults and moisture was gathering in her eyes, she didn't know and didn't dare speculate. She was only aware that the true reason to her woes involved something dark, something complicated, and something that had been lurking in the deepest layers of her heart. She had a feeling that if she kept thinking about it, she might just open Pandora's Box and unleashed a pain far worse than what she was experiencing right now.

"Now that's bold." Her boyfriend's amused voice brought her back to the present just in time for her to witness a sight that struck her like a slap on her cheek.

Aizawa Nanami took off her glasses and gently put it aside. Under the cool shade of the gingko trees flanking their stone bench, she brushed back a few strands of stray hair and tucked them behind her ears with a grace Kotoha didn't possess. Against her will, her hands rose to grab her throat, within which a fireball seemed to be burning as it fed on the emotions roaring from the pit of her stomach. Her vision blurred by tears and her nerves snapping one after another, she watched as the pony-tailed second-year turned her head and drew her face toward that of Shizuka, who didn't put up any resistance at all.

Kotoha thought the pain was going to kill her at the instant her onee-chan closed her sapphire eyes and opened her mouth to receive the kiss. She shook her head vehemently, trying to deny with all her heart the event transpiring in front of her eyes. Soundless gasps escaped her lips and burned their way up her cartilages. The world exploded in her ears as a terrible heat flared into life in her throat and rushed upward. Her self-control unraveled.

 _"No!"_ she shouted with all the strength she possessed, her loud and anxious voice imbued with the force of a desert storm. _"Let go of her! Don't touch her!"_ Her existence was quivering. She had to release the mind-numbing pressure building rapidly in her heart. _"Onee-chan is... Onee-chan is...!"_

The last word died at the tip of her tongue as she finally realized the gravity of what she would have said had she not held herself back in time. Depths of horror swallowed her and liquefied her muscles. She sank to her knees. Moisture spilled down her enflamed cheeks. _Gods, what was I thinking?!_ She nearly choked at the memories. Her hands clutched at her mouth. Her lips were dry like sands, her breaths searing into her palms, and her tears slipped through her fingers' cracks.

"Kotoha?" The statuesque seventeen-year-old rose from the stone bench and turned around, her face aghast, her voice soaked with incredulity. She never noticed that her sudden upward movement had knocked her obentou off her lap and hurled its content onto the ground. "What are you doing here?"

Aizawa, who had put her glasses back on, was squinting at Kotoha as though a creature extinct.

"You shouldn't have done that," Mikoto commented quietly, his emerald eyes boring inexorably at her. His face was unreadable, his gentle smile sending chills down her back. "Without practice, how can they perform onstage?"

"Onstage?" she repeated blandly.

Shizuka and her classmate were approaching. Soon, they were going to arrive where she knelt. She considered running away. She would have too, if she could just pull herself to her feet.

"But of course," her boyfriend said in the same eerily calm voice. "They were assigned the leading roles of a school play, you know, for the upcoming Culture Festival. I would have liked them to adapt from a historical novel, but the class consensus ruled in favor of a romance manga instead."

"Manga?" Kotoha's voice was trembling.

"Yes. A manga involving a relationship between girls." He chuckled at that. "That was why they forced the role down Shizuka's throat. She protested, but against the will of the overwhelming majority of the class, she couldn't get out of it. She had to spend the last three weeks eating lunch with Aizawa because she was having trouble with her acting."

"You... you mean everything I saw was just... practice for the play?" Blood rushed up to her face and warmed it to near melting. Dizziness slapped her.

Her boyfriend nodded casually. "The script did contain such a scene." His amused tone implied he knew something but wouldn't say what. "I must say that the class rep's performance, _were_ it one, was quite realistic. I would have thought she had a crush on Shizuka."

"Why..." she swallowed audibly, "why didn't you tell me?" It would have made a huge difference. Had she known... had she known, she wouldn't have blurted out such embarrassing words.

Mikoto gave her a level look. "It slipped my mind. Sorry. I didn't think you'd have a problem with it." Toward the end, his voice adopted a coolness bordering on what one could feel in the middle of winter.

"Kotoha?" called her onee-chan, who stood no more than an arm away from her now. So many emotions were warring on her lovely face. Kotoha only identified one of them. It was curiosity.

"Hey there, Kotoha-chan," Aizawa Nanami greeted her warmly and extended a hand to her. She took it and let herself be pulled to her feet. She thought she was going to fall back down. "Nice to see you."

"He... hello," she said in a strangled voice and panicked. Intent and piercing as it was, onee-chan's sapphire gaze was most unsettling. "Um... I... I had forgotten something back..." she stammered, awfully aware of the hot trails of tears on her face, "back... in the classroom. I'll... see you later." Gathering all the strength left in her, she spun on her heels and ran away as fast as she could, sensing once again the moisture misting her eyes. She didn't care if she was going to fall down and hurt herself the way she didn't pay attention to where she was going. She only needed to get out of that place. The last thing she wanted to do right now was to explain why she had said what she did.

 _Gods, what is happening to me?_ she thought amidst the streaking tears, ignoring the wide-eyed students on campus.

* * *

Oogami Mikoto knew that his countenance was very calm, inhumanly so, right now despite the bitterness trouncing his stomach. He was glad that he was never someone who showed his emotions on his face or even let them seize control over his actions. Idly, he stood up and brushed off the dirt on his pants. He pondered running after his girlfriend and returned her obentou, but decided against after a second thought. In such an agitated state, she might not appreciate his presence. He didn't want to trouble her more than she already was. He eyed his wristwatch. Ten minutes left until class resumed. Sighing, he sat back down and unwrapped his own lunchbox. He didn't want to suffer an empty stomach for the next few hours.

"Your little sister is rather amusing, don't you think, Himemiya?" Aizawa Nanami turned to the blue-haired girl, who seemed to be torn between staying and running after the girl with the golden braid. "She's so possessive of you. A thousand yen says that what she meant to say was _'Onee-chan is mine!'"_ The class rep laughed softly. "How cute!" Her facial expression turned thoughtful. "Although that wasn't how I remembered her from the rare occasions she visited our class. She seemed like such a kind, timid, and sweet girl. Who could have imagined she could sound so... _fierce_?"

Shizuka blushed hotly. Mikoto didn't know his childhood friend could do that.

"Really, Aizawa?" he said with a smile and lifted a fried crab croquette to his mouth.

"Of course!" his classmate exclaimed. "My baby sisters," the girl had a pair, "were like that too. They always said that they were going to give my romantic interest a hard time as soon as I got one." She glanced at the other girl, who was too busy blushing at the ground to notice.

All of a sudden, Shizuka's scarlet color faded and her sapphire eyes swiveled to his face. They were very sharp. Another boy in his place would have flinched and dropped the croquette. He smiled. The thing never trembled even once between the tips of his chopsticks.

"Did you bring her here, Mikoto?" she demanded. He nodded while chewing on his food. "Why?"

"She wanted to eat lunch with you," he explained. Plain truth. It was simply _not_ the answer to her question. He winced at the fried shrimp he just put inside his mouth. His mother put too much salt.

"I see," Shizuka muttered.

"Should we get back to practice, Himemiya?" the class rep suggested hopefully. "We did have a few minutes left." He was willing to wager that the girl hadn't been very pleased to have her well-planned kiss interrupted. Not that she showed such signs on her face. Like him, she was deft at hiding her emotions. Like him, she was more dangerous than she looked.

"I am sorry." His childhood friend shook her head. "I am not feeling too well. I am heading back to class first." Not even waiting for an assent, she strode forward.

"Tough luck, class rep," Mikoto teased her once the older Himemiya had gotten out of earshot. "I bet you must have spent a great deal of effort adding that lovey-dovey scene into the script."

"Well," she cleared her throat loudly, "I did promise to _accidentally_ skip Rikugou when it came to cleaning duties. Twice. Plus a threat to expose his hiding those dirty manga in his shoe locker. Worked really well."

He laughed.

"And how are you going to compensate to me, Oogami-kun?" She narrowed her eyes at him. "Without you, I would have had my kiss already." She put her hands on her hips.

He laughed harder at the girl's straightforwardness. Unlike Kotoha, Aizawa Nanami knew what her heart desired. Like Kotoha, she was infatuated with a certain beautiful girl. Romantically.

Strangely enough, he couldn't stop laughing although his relationship was in jeopardy. Could it be the competitive blood running in his veins? Could it be the fact that he thought a strong challenge would bring a little more fun to this battle in love?

He would believe so.

* * *

 _Wednesday, June 24th, 10:43 PM._

* * *

Himemiya Shizuka decided to go to sleep after spending an hour staring at her relatively blank Physics homework. They were easy enough, yet somehow she didn't have the strength or the conviction to sit still at her desk and actually work them out. She often would put down her pencil and lean her back against her chair just so she could stare at the ceiling and wonder what could her younger sister have meant when she spoke those heated words this afternoon. And then she would blush hotly at the words echoing in her ears and became so embarrassed by them she took up her pencil again and started scribbling on the pages. The same process repeated many more times until she was so fed up with it she slammed her notebook shut.

Sighing, she folded her arms on the desk and laid a side of her head over them. _Was it really nothing more than sibling's jealousy at work like Aizawa claimed?_ she wondered. Of course she wanted the answer to that question to be a _"No,"_ seeing how much she was in love with Kotoha. Of course she wanted to be assured that her precious golden-haired angel harbored toward her something more than sisterly affection. But that was merely wishful thinking. Kotoha had a boyfriend, and Mikoto was a nice and caring guy despite his eccentric tendencies as well as a twisted sense of humor. There was no reason why she would abandon such a normal relationship for something impure and horrifying like what Shizuka had been hiding in her heart.

 _I want to see her so much._ Like usual, the girl was already in her room upon Shizuka's return from practice. The ones who waited for her at the dining table were her loving mothers, who already ate with her sister but still wanted to sit with her and talk. Chikane-kaa-san revealed that Kotoha did not have much of an appetite. Himeko-kaa-san elaborated that she detected something heavy on her youngest daughter's mind. The two women sometimes would glance at each other and exchange mysterious smiles Shizuka could not read. Sometimes she believed that her parents could communicate solely through eye contact. They knew each other that well. She wished she could do the same with the girl she cherished.

Someone knocked on the door. Her heart leapt into her throat.

"Onee-chan?" called her sister's hesitant voice. "Can I... can I come in?"

"Go ahead," she heard herself answer and winced at the note of excitement she failed to hide. "The door is not locked."

The door swung open, admitting a gorgeous Kotoha clad in a crimson pajama with her hair down. The color of her complexion easily matched that of her clothes. Standing with her hands folded behind her back, her head slightly turned, and her eyes taking up a serious study of the gray carpet, she was at her most adorable. Shizuka wanted to run to where the girl was, hug her, kiss her, and carry her to bed.

"Why... are you still awake?" she asked, feeling light-headed in the presence of her sweetheart. "It is past your bed time already, is it not?" Realizing that the sixteen-year-old was still standing stiffly, she added, "Have a seat anywhere you like."

Kotoha closed the door behind her and sat down on the bed. There, she stayed very still with her right hand thumbing an earlobe for a couple of minutes before she gazed toward Shizuka's chair in such a longing manner her heart hurt. Face hot as an oven, she watched her little sister fidget and squirm atop the bed. _So cute!_ she marveled in her head.

"Onee-chan," Kotoha called finally, her voice nearly a whisper. "Would... would you come over here for a little bit?" She patted on the spot right next to hers on the mattress.

Normally Shizuka would have found an excuse to avoid getting so close to the girl she loved. Not today. Not after having her resolve completely melted by what she had seen and heard in the afternoon. Gods, but she felt weak in both mind and body. Gods, but she did not think she had the willpower to try to shun her first and last love away anymore.

Feeling light enough to float, she rose from her chair and settled down next to her precious sibling. Only half a hand separated their shoulders.

"I'm not bothering you, am I, onee-chan?" Kotoha asked quietly.

"Not really." Shizuka shook her head. "I am about to go to sleep anyway. Is there... something you want to talk to me about?" Her left hand and Kotoha's right were right next to each other atop the mattress, their edges maybe only a fraction of an inch apart. She shivered as if goosed. She wanted to hold that petite and pretty hand. She wanted to caress its back with her fingers. She wanted to take each of these delicate fingertips into her mouth, kiss them, and suck on them as lovingly as she could. Her cheeks went aflame.

"About that, um..." her little sister hesitated, "I want to apologize for... um... interrupting you and Aizawa-san during lunch break."

Shizuka blushed harder at the startling memories of her little sister's fierce outburst. Luckily, the girl she loved was too busy staring at the floor to notice. Even the tips of her ears were red.

"You should not worry too much about it," Shizuka said. She also wanted to add that she would have backed out of the kiss at the last second – the very thought of kissing anyone except Kotoha on the mouth was reviling – but something inside her was advising against it. She dropped the idea.

"I should!" her little angel insisted. "I shouldn't have jumped to conclusion so quickly." Amethyst eyes regarded her in depths of shyness. "Did you... did you resume it... afterwards, onee-chan?"

She shook her head. Her little puppy's crimson face was a sight to look at the way it became a battlefield between guilt and something she could only name relief. Her heart slammed against the ribcage in her chest. _Guilt I can understand... but relief?_ Fire flared into life from deep within her body, rippled outwardly in a hundred directions, and rushed out of her nose in the form of searing-hot gushes of breaths. It was like a furnace was roaring inside her. _Gods above, does it mean what I think it does?_

"Why not?" Kotoha whispered, her eyes back to being glued at the carpeted floor.

"I was just... not in the mood anymore," Shizuka explained. It was true. Who would be able to kiss another person when the love of her life had just shouted at her in what she assumed to be jealousy and run off in obvious embarrassment anyway?

"I'm so sorry," her sister apologized again in guilt and relief, the latter overpowering the former. "I made you lose a chance to practice for your play."

She gazed speechlessly at the golden-haired girl for a few seconds. "Well, there is one thing you can do to make up for it," she opined.

She had been mooning over Kotoha too long to not know that when the latter thought she was at fault, she had to find a way to compensate or she would never be free of the guilt. Plus, it had been a long while since Shizuka tasted her little angel's handmade food. She would kill to be able to eat it again.

The statement actually added a great deal more color to her sweetheart's cheek.

"Well..." the sixteen-year-old mumbled breathlessly, "if you want, I can be... your practice partner. I mean... if you don't mind, that is..."

Shizuka was at a loss for words. It took her five minutes to regain her voice. "You mean the kiss?"

A shy and slow yet determined nod answered her. She thought she was seeing steam rise from her little sister's ears. "You need practice... don't you?" A pause. A ragged intake of breath. A shiver rippled across her trim body. A rise of a few degrees of temperature in the room. A small hand landed gently on the back of hers, its delicate fingers threading with hers. Shizuka thought she was becoming drunk just from the air she breathed.

"But it is on the lips!" she exclaimed. Inside, she was cursing herself for voicing such a protest.

"I... wouldn't mind," her little puppy announced in a voice almost too soft to be heard. "We're sisters after all... I don't think there's any rule that says we can't kiss one another on the lips... Besides, we've done it before, haven't we?"

Kotoha lifted Shizuka's hand from the mattress and deposited it atop the former's lap, which was soft and seemed to be gathering insane amounts of heat beneath the silk pajama. There, the hand received the tenderest treatment in the world. It was massaged lovingly by the angel's hands, it was caressed by her delicate fingers, and it was eventually brought to her mouth to receive a kiss on its back. Dimly, Shizuka decided that she was not going to wash that part of her hand for the next two or three weeks.

"Say, koneko-chan," the younger Himemiya called affectionately, allowing Shizuka's palm to rub against her burning cheek. Had it not been for her holding onto her strength and willpower, she would have melted into a puddle on the bed. "Do you remember our first kiss?" The girl turned her magnificent head toward Shizuka, the former's amethyst eyes shining with longing... and what she suspected to be love.

 _Gods, is she talking to her elder sister or a lover?_ she thought, intoxicated.

"I do," she heard herself answer. It was something forever etched in her mind. Not even time was going to erase it from her memories. "I do." The last words she uttered were fervent enough to be a prayer to the Gods. She hoped they were going to preserve her sanity. This conversation, saturated with love as it was, was wearing down her resolve like a river eating at its banks. In a flood.

"Can you... recall what you said afterwards?"

She gave a nod for an answer. _"I kinda liked that,"_ she had whispered to her blood sibling eleven years in the shadows of the past. It was an understatement. The six-year-old Shizuka had not been familiar with the words enough to express her thoughts more clearly. It would not be an exaggeration to say that she would have surrendered anything she owned for that one single kiss.

"Then... you would not have any problem kissing me again, right?" Kotoha asked. "And... it's just for practice. It's not like we're doing anything out of line." She sounded like she was trying to convince herself, Shizuka noted. She sounded like she was looking for an excuse to justify the kiss.

 _Now that has to be my imagination,_ Shizuka snarled at herself mentally. _Or my overly wishful imagination at work._ Kotoha was not like her. The golden-haired sixteen-year-old was an angel with a spotless mind and untainted innocence. There was no way she could have been so twisted that she would want to make out with someone with her own blood. She was just trying to help her sister; that was all. _But if that were the case,_ a discordant thought stirred her mind, _I need not be too concerned, right?_

Since that fateful evening, she had always wanted to taste her little sister's lips once more. And now, the chance was handed to her with no strings attached.

"No, I would not have any problem with that," she whispered.

"Then kiss me, onee-chan." Her wingless angel reduced the distance between their face to no more than an inch. "Let me compensate to you, please." The plea, desperate and drop-dead serious, laid all of Shizuka's doubts and reservations to rest.

She tremblingly rubbed her nose lovingly on her sweetheart's forehead, where she recognized the scent of perspiration, thin but noticeable like a rose blossom hidden out of sight. As it slid downward and nuzzled its tip with that of the younger girl, she deeply inhaled overwhelmingly fragrant breaths, which bore the essence of an orchid flower and were warm enough to sear. As she continued to take in that which smelled better perfume and revel in the sensual contact between their noses' tips, she sensed the sixteen-year-old's shivers, heard her euphoric gasps, and felt her body heat soaking into Shizuka's own clothes. Her little sister was enjoying it. She knew... she was doing it right.

Her nose slipped downward and pressed gently upon Kotoha's slightly opened lips. Here, she smelled something sweet that she could not quite put her fingers on. Here, she was pleasantly surprised upon having the tip of her nose receive butterfly pecks and occasional playful bites that should have been reserved to a pair of lovers before or during making love. Yet she did not care too much about that at the moment. Eyes closed, she cupped Kotoha's heart-shaped face with both hands and relished the sweet scent she was breathing in from her lips.

"I don't recall you teasing Aizawa-san like this, onee-chan," stated her first love.

Her eyes sprang open to take in the sight of a furiously blushing Kotoha, in whose amethyst irises shyness and unspeakable joy could be glimpsed.

"I am sorry," she apologized. "I... am a tad nervous."

"Do you... need a moment to calm down?" the little puppy offered.

 _I can never stay calm in your presence,_ she thought ruefully and gave a shake of her head. _You take my breath away._

"Then kiss me," Kotoha said, her tone that of half a command and half a plea. She closed her eyes and slightly opened her delicate cherry petal lips. "Hurry, onee-chan."

Spurred by her sweetheart's sincerity, Shizuka shed her restraints. Once she had slipped her arms around her little sister's waist, the measurement of which never grew in defiance of all the sweets she consumed, Shizuka drew her most important person into a light kiss. She expected one pure like a stream in spring. She thought she was going to receive what siblings would be comfortable offering each other.

She did not.

The desires she had spent months suppressing and imprisoning in a dark corner of her soul erupted all at once the instant their lips met. It was by no means deep or passionate, for their mouths simply stayed pressed together and did nothing more. However, flames were blossoming fiercely one after another where their flesh touched and rushed into her body shortly before it got blown into a firestorm and drowned her in an ocean of scorching heat. Fear seized her at the first sign indicating that the kiss was going out of control, that it was growing fierier, and that something inside her was urging her to devour her sister's lips.

Her innards ravaged by the claws and fangs of horror, she broke the kiss and pulled away. Her eyes shooting open, she witnessed the shade of disappointment rippling on the younger Himemiya's gorgeous face. It was gone the following instant, replaced by a crimson color that dyed her complexion into that of a sunset. She was cuter than ever. Her sheer willpower was the only thing that kept Shizuka from leaning in again and reclaiming these sensuous lips.

"It is rather late, Kotoha," she muttered, a little crossed with herself. "You should go back to bed." Sensing the danger of sitting so close to the girl she loved, she rose to her feet and walked away.

There was no second step. A pair of arms flew around her at the same time a soft bosom pressed against her back and a pair of moist lips descended on her left shoulder, bare except for the string that kept her indigo nightgown from slipping down her frame. A gasp clawed its way out of her lips.

"Let me stay with you tonight, onee-chan," Kotoha mumbled against her naked skin. The sixteen-year-old's body was quivering, her voice threatening to break. Her arms tightened around Shizuka's waist. "Don't make me go back."

"But why?"

Silence answered her. Searing breaths tickled the nape of her neck. Small, delicate hands clutched the front of her nightgown.

"I can't explain," her little puppy spoke up finally, "but I really don't want to sleep alone tonight, onee-chan. I tried. It didn't work. So please? Just one night, I beg you! I promise I won't bother you again." The girl's desperate imploring tone hurt.

Shizuka detected utmost fear in her little sister's voice, she recognized apprehension, and she certainly had heard an insecure note. She knew if she insisted on shooing the love of her life away, the girl was going to spend an entire night sitting in a corner of her room, trembling and sobbing until the sun came up. She sighed in resignation. Although she was fully aware that letting Kotoha sleep over on the same bed was a threat to her insanity, she did not have the heart to leave her most beloved person to her own devices.

Slowly, she turned around and hugged the younger Himemiya gently. "If you really want to," she soothingly stroked her sister's back, "then it is okay with me. But just one night, okay?"

"Thank you, onee-chan," Kotoha sobbed in her embrace. "Thank you so much."

Never once did Shizuka expect that her moment of weakness had given the girl she cherished a new problem almost twice as severe instead of solving the one that had chased her out of her own room.

* * *

Himemiya Kotoha left the sanctuary of her bedroom because she couldn't force herself to fall asleep. She came into her elder sister's private chamber to seek the loving arms that held her every night when she was young and kept sleeplessness or nightmares from bothering her sound slumber. She got what she wanted when the blue-haired girl agreed to let her stay, when she kindly left a dim bed light on and climbed onto bed, and when she gently pulled Kotoha into a protective hug. Lying on her side now, the lovely seventeen-year-old had one arm beneath Kotoha's head to provide a comfy cushion and the other draped over her waist, holding her tight.

Given that she was in the company of her onee-chan, she should have been able to sleep.

She didn't. Kotoha soon discovered that her eyes refused to close down for more than a few seconds, that she was wide awake despite the fact that it was already past her bed time, and that perhaps staying here probably wasn't going to help.

Although she couldn't explain it to the elder Himemiya, Kotoha knew full well the nature of what had disturbed her so much back in her own room. It was the memories of the event that had transpired in the afternoon, when she was forced to watch in heart-wrenching agony and blatant jealousy while Aizawa Nanami made an advance on her sister. She didn't know whether Mikoto's class rep was only practicing for the school play, but the second-year student had flung at her face a possibility Kotoha never thought of.

Her sister wasn't going to stay without a romantic interest forever, seeing how popular she was with both sexes. She was beauty incarnate, she was grace personified, and her music could touch the stoniest heart. People would kneel at her feet and ask for her love. They would kill to receive it.

Himemiya Kotoha felt threatened by the fact. She was frightened by it. She hated to admit that it was true. All her life she had taken Shizuka for granted. She thought the blue-haired girl was going to stay by her side, be her friend, keep her safe, and love her until the day mortality took them apart. What she saw in the afternoon was a rude awakening that disabused her of her naïve assumptions. It was a sight that injected a massive dose of crippling fear and insecurity into her heart. It had her envision a bleak future where Shizuka became the girlfriend of some boy or girl Kotoha never met before in her life, liked them more than her, and eventually abandoned her to pursue personal happiness.

Tossing and turning atop her bed, she recalled the happy moments between her and her precious onee-chan. The more she did, the more painful throbs lay siege on her already tender and aching heart. She knew she was being unreasonably selfish as well as possessive... but she couldn't deny she wanted Shizuka all to herself. She despised the mere thought of sharing the picturesque seventeen-year-old with anybody except perhaps her two mothers. She was ashamed of herself for it. She knew not why she was emotionally attached to her blood sister to the point it tortured her to even _imagine_ the latter romantically involved with someone... else. The thought and the way it sounded in her head had made her blush and bury her face in her pillow in deathly embarrassment.

 _I want to see her,_ a voice had raved in her mind as fear and apprehension and insecurity tortured her in bed. _I want to be held by her. I want her to tell me she's not going to love anyone more than she loves..._ The fire that raged on her cheeks had spurred her out of her room.

And that was how she ended up on this bed, engulfed in the warm embrace of the onee-chan she cherished. Different was the fact that her heart was no longer hurting. What remained the same was the fact that she still couldn't sleep. The good thing was that fear, apprehension, and insecurity had all departed. The bad thing was that what had come to take their place – it was embarrassing, but she couldn't figure out what _it_ could be – was no less intense. Worse, this time she couldn't even move around to distract herself. Locked in the arms of her soundly sleeping mermaid, whom she didn't have the heart to wake, she suffered again. This time, adrenalin flowed free in her blood.

Her entire body was brimming with heat as though it was trapped in a sauna and her skin tingling heartbeat after heartbeat. Her breaths were so hot they reminded her of the time she was bedridden with a serious fever, her eyes burning as they silently drank in the noble features on the face of the girl who was sleeping with her arm tight around Kotoha's waist. On her side she lay and stayed still, listening to her heart pounding while admiring the dimples on her precious sister's cheeks, the curves of her onee-chan's pretty lips, and the contours of her small chin. Sometimes, her gaze would trail down and linger beneath Shizuka's neck long enough for her to blush at the deep cleavage tightly nestled between a pair of round and beautiful breasts, one of which was mostly exposed due to a stir of the elder Himemiya earlier, which caused one of her nightgown straps to slide down her slim shoulder.

Sometimes she would lower her eyes far enough to see that the hem of the indigo nightgown had ridden up to Shizuka's hips, revealing a pair of smooth, toned thighs that shone like ivory under the bed lamp's pool of illumination. Kotoha never realized how long they were, how deliciously taut they were, or how much she would like to run her hand over their flesh. She blushed. Nested between those lithesome legs was the gorgeous rose she had had a chance to admire the previous night. It was decently and elegantly embraced by a pair of white cotton panties with laces beneath the waistband and a small ribbon at the front. The undergarment looked very cute on her sweetheart.

 _In bed with such a beautiful girl,_ she thought ruefully, _how am I supposed to sleep?_

She wasn't. She ended up staying awake, half-voluntarily and half not, until the morning, having spent every moment that passed gazing, sometimes unblinkingly, at the adorable sleeping face of her elder sister. While Shizuka was already visually stunning even in the dim bed light, she grew even more so as the light of the world slowly emerged from the distant horizon and visited the room through the glass pane on the other side of the bed. Himemiya Kotoha felt her breaths taken away as daybreak lit up the princeling's gorgeous countenance, painting it with a radiant sheen one would see from silk or satin. It emphasized her noble features. It bathed her glossy azure hair in golden light.

Kotoha's cheeks, as they often were during the course of the night, were hot. Her breathing was quick, her heart aflutter, her stomach doing somersaults under the influence of a powerful urge she couldn't recognize. She didn't understand why simply watching a girl, her sister at that, had this kind of effect.

She burrowed more deeply into the mermaid's embrace, putting her face a little closer to that of the latter. This close, she could take in the older girl's breaths. They were so warm and fragrant they were reminiscent of a gust of wind in summer that happened to pass over a field of orchid flowers in full bloom. They intoxicated her so greatly she grew tipsier with every intake of air.

Her eyes dawned on the seventeen-year-old's lips. Her face burned as the recollection of last night spun across her vision. The taste of the kiss, soft and searing and sweet, still lingered on her lips. The joyous feelings granted to her the moment their mouths melded together the previous evening resurfaced in her mind. Then came the disappointment. The kiss had been brief and by no means satisfying. She wasn't proud of her thoughts, but she did wish Shizuka had pinned her down on the bed and kissed her until they fell asleep. For some reason, she had come to view that meeting of lips, delicious to both the body and the soul, as an addicting drug one single taste of which had her on her knees and begging for more.

She wondered if Shizuka would mind if she stole just a little kiss.

The next few minutes were torturous as she couldn't decide between claiming the lips of her onee-chan and waiting for the latter to wake. More than once she tremblingly tried to close the distance between their mouths just so she could once again indulge herself in last night's sensation. For an equal number of times she pulled back, berating herself that something as precious as a kiss on the mouth shouldn't be taken away without the beautiful mermaid's permission.

Her struggle end the moment she noticed that a change was taking place upon Shizuka's visage. The seventeen-year-old's cheeks were gaining in color and heat. Her lithe frame was trembling slightly. And yet she remained lodged in the ocean of the dark, seemingly occupied by a gripping dream.

Himemiya Kotoha was wondering what was happening to her sweetheart – _since when did I start thinking of her in such a way?_ a voice whispered from the dark recesses of her mind – when the princeling began to speak in a voice so soft she could have been talking to herself.

The hot and sultry words flowed from those cherry-petal lips fastened an invisible claw around Kotoha's heart and sent her staggering out of the beloved seventeen-year-old's room. The organ pounding inside her ribcage hurt so terribly she thought she was going to collapse onto the carpeted floor more than once before she safely reached her bed. Atop the soft and comfortable mattress she trembled. Into the pillow she issued hot, ragged breaths. There, she let her mind spin endlessly in chaos while wondering why she was behaving in such a peculiar way.

 _What could have been wrong with me, onee-chan?_ she thought.

More thoughts, all dark and impossible to decipher, bubbled up from the depth of her heart until she couldn't stand it anymore. Bounding to her feet, she fetched clean clothes and a towel from a closet and hurried out of her room, fervently hoping the hot water of the bathtub would wash all of her trouble away.


	3. Desperate Longing

**_CHAPTER THREE: DESPERATE LONGING._**

* * *

 _Thursday, June 25th, 1:23 PM._

* * *

Although having finished her lunch, Himemiya Chikane remained seated at the dining table in casual jeans and tee-shirt and watched her first and last love, Himemiya Himeko, wash the dishes with a happy smile adorned on her face. Marriage had been kind to Chikane during the last seventeen years in that she was blessed with a loving wife whom she treasured more than the world, a couple of kind and obedient daughters, and a life in which bliss ruled and self-perpetuated. Of course, there had been a little trouble brewing during the last few months, during which her older child realized she was head over heels in love with her younger sister and mentally tortured herself for it. Regardless, Chikane felt certain everything would work out in the end, providing that Kotoha had been showing signs that she harbored more than sisterly affections toward her onee-chan. With a little _push_ in the right direction, things would go well.

"She did not want to eat, Otoha-san?" she inquired as the curly-haired woman brought a tray full of food back into the dining room.

"No, Chikane-Oku-sama," the family's trusted maid answered and laid the food tray on the table. "Ojou-sama said she didn't have an appetite. Said she'd come down here herself to get food when she was hungry." Her expression was grim.

"But she hasn't had breakfast yet," Himeko pointed out worriedly. "I'll bring it to her."

"I will do it," Chikane said to her wife. "I know a way to convince the child that an empty stomach is not good for her health." She smiled. "Stay here and wait, ne?"

Her faithful companion nodded.

Hands holding the tray on which sat dishfuls of delicious food – her little angel's culinary skills improved after every meal, which was definitely another blessing in this family – Chikane quietly tread in the spacious hallway leading toward her children's rooms while pondering the words she should say to her allegedly ailing daughter. Earlier in morning, Kotoha had confined herself in the bathroom for two hours straight and never responded when the photographer knocked on the door and asked if everything was alright. When the golden-haired woman used a key to unlock the door and went inside, she found a Kotoha unconscious and half immersed in the hot water of the bathtub.

Coming to, the girl had confessed that she might have enjoyed her bath too much and lost track on time. Slightly disturbed about the child's health, Chikane had decided to have her youngest daughter skip school for today and sent Shizuka to Ototachibana with Kisaragi Otoha. From the worried look on her eldest daughter's face, she could tell that the girl wanted to stay home to look after her sister but decided to go in the end. Shizuka must have known that staying would serve no purpose. She was a smart child.

There was no immediate danger at the very least. Hibiki Shizuku, the competent family doctor, had assured Chikane that a few hours of rest would restore Kotoha to her original state. However, she did warn the golden-haired girl that the latter was slightly out of shape despite her slim figure. The sixteen-year-old was nodding meekly while the cat-fanatic lectured on how one must not rely on high metabolism on the time and exercise regularly, but Chikane knew that her youngest daughter was not going to do it.

 _Such a coincidence, though,_ she mused. _I wonder if it had anything to do with what I saw in the morning._ She felt herself reel back in time to this morning, when she witnessed a peculiarity that involved an absent Kotoha and a dazed Shizuka who was apparently very, very embarrassed with herself.

* * *

 _Thursday, June 25th, 7:30 AM._

* * *

 _"Shizuka?"_ _Himemiya Chikane called after a knock on her eldest daughter's door. "Are you awake?" The two children's classes started at nine. They needed to be up soon or they would not have time for shower and breakfast. It was rather strange that Shizuka had yet to leave her room. The child usually woke up around seven and was all dressed up by eight, when she sat down at the dining table and helped herself to a portion of Himeko's food._ I hope she did not get sick, _she thought._ She really needs to stop spending so much time in the swimming pool so late at night.

 _"Shizuka?" she called again. The girl was a heavy sleeper. She might not have heard her alarm clock. Or Chikane knocking and calling for her._

 _That was not the case._

 _"I... am awake, kaa-san," her daughter spoke from inside the room. Her voice a little strangled, it belied the fear worming into her stomach, and it made Shizuka sound a child caught with her hand in the cookie jar._

 _"Is it okay if I come in?" she asked, slightly worried._

 _A moment of silence._

 _"Please," her daughter assented. It was reluctance she heard this time._

 _Chikane opened the door and walked inside. On the mattress the seventeen-year-old sat with her back against the headboard and most of her body under a blanket. Her face was crimson._

 _"What is wrong?" Chikane asked once she had sat down at the edge of the bed. "You look a little troubled." Her comment added more color to Shizuka's cheeks and made her pull the blanket over her shoulder. It would seem she was hiding something underneath._

Oh! _The light of comprehension dawned on Chikane's mind._ Maybe that is why! _She resisted the urge to chuckle and kept a straight face. It was difficult._

 _"I will be okay, kaa-san," Shizuka said timidly. "I just had a weird dream last night and..." Her voice faltered. "I will be okay," she repeated in a more breathless voice._

 _"Was it Kotoha you saw in your dream?" Chikane teased. "And how many times did you two go at it?" She was amazed by how calm and casual she sounded._

 _"I did not keep track," the seventeen-year-old muttered in embarrassment. "It_ is _a dream and Kotoha was..." Her sapphire eyes became teacups. Her mouth worked soundlessly. Her face could have been splashed with a crimson dye. When she managed to close her mouth – it took her a great deal of efforts – she fixed her gaze on the blanket and chewed on her underlip._

 _Chikane chuckled. "No need to get worried about it, Shizuka," she assured the azure-haired girl. "It is quite normal to get... excited in your dreams. You cannot control them, so do not bother."_

 _"I... I am not worried about... that," her daughter mumbled. "It is just that..." A long pause. A deep take of breath. "Did you... see Kotoha this morning, kaa-san?"_

 _"She is in the bathroom right now," she answered._

 _"So... you could not have known how she looked, right?" The kid seemed to be talking to herself._

 _"Why are you concerned about her?" Chikane asked curiously._

 _"Because..." Shizuka hesitated, "because I am worried she could have seen me in this... state. It_ is _embarrassing!"_

 _"How?"_ _Amusement seized Chikane. "She was in her room..." Comprehension and amusement seized her at the same time. "Wait a minute. She was here?"_

 _The seventeen-year-old nodded weakly. "She said she could not sleep alone so she asked so stay with me. I felt sorry for her so I... agreed." She hastily added, "I did not do anything to her! I... I only held her and slept!"_

 _Chikane laughed so hard that tears leaked from the corners of her eyes._

 _"Kaa-san!" exclaimed the adolescent. There was a pleading note in her tone._

 _"I am sorry," she apologized, her body trembling in the fits of laughter. It took much effort just to subdue her mirth. "You should not worry," she smiled at her silly daughter. "Kotoha is a grown girl. Even if she had seen," she cleared her throat, "she was not so naïve she would have a problem with it."_

 _"I hope so." The younger Himemiya sighed. "I did not want her to think that I had... that kind of dream only because she slept next to me."_

 _"But it is true, is it not?" Chikane glanced at the seventeen-year-old, who blushed and nodded. "Her presence was the cause. You have suppressed your love and needs for far too long. It is inevitable."_

 _"I... had no choice, kaa-san," the girl claimed, depressed. "If she knew that I thought about her in such a way, she would become disgusted with me. I... would die should that happen."_

 _"You should not be too sure." Chikane smiled and rose to her feet. "In any case, you should take a quick shower in our second bathroom and come down to breakfast. We will be waiting."_

 _"Okay," Shizuka answered quietly, obviously still embarrassed._

 _On her way back to the dining room, she could not help but chuckle. It was true that people became blind when they were ensnared in the web of love. Her eldest daughter was no exception. She never noticed that the way her younger sister looked at her had become different from what it used to be, the way she addressed her far more affectionate. But soon, when the opportunity presented itself, she would finally open her eyes and see the truth._

* * *

Too bad that even Shizuka knew not what could have gone wrong with Kotoha. The girl, even though a little bit concerned about what had happened in her room, did not relate it to her younger sister's inexplicable behavior. Not that Chikane would see any reason why Shizuka should. From her standpoint, it could not have been the cause. Knowing that her elder sister had experienced a bit of excitement in a dream could not have constituted that much of a shock. It was improbable.

Himemiya Chikane knocked on the door to her youngest daughter's room. It was open, revealing an interior painted by the brilliant light of the afternoon sun. At the far side of the room the younger of the Himemiya siblings sat in a pair of pajama – she chose indigo this time – with her arms about her knees and her back facing the door. The glass panel was slid aside, allowing the fresh air of the rose garden to stream freely inside and bless the large chamber with an overwhelming floral fragrance.

Chikane knocked again, thinking that the girl might not have heard. She received no reaction this time either. She went inside, laid the food tray on her daughter's desk, and walked to where she sat. There, she settled down cross-legged on the carpeted floor and observed the sixteen-year-old's face.

The teenager's cheeks did look a trifle pale. Her amethyst eyes, a little too lightless for Chikane's comfort, gazed straight ahead at the garden, but she doubted those gems actually saw much. Compared to that, the rest of her countenance provided more information. Chikane spied confusion furrowing these elegant eyebrows and solitude creasing the corners of these bright eyes. A little bit of insecurity curving down the girl's delicate lips. She wondered why such negative emotions were there.

She raked her fingers through the golden tresses of her youngest daughter. Kotoha with her hair down like this resembled and looked different from her other mother at the same time.

"Otoha-san said you has no appetite," Chikane murmured softly. "While that may be true, you have to eat or your health is going to worsen, child. Plus, Himeko would be very disappointed that you did not want to try out her new recipes. They are really good."

"But I'm not hungry at all," answered the normally effervescent kid. "Even if I did eat them, they'd taste like dust anyway." She grimaced. "I'm not saying Hi-kaa-chan's cooking is bad..."

Chikane chuckled. "I know, I know." She pulled her second child closer and gently laid a side of the latter's head on her shoulder. "Say, did Mikoto complain that you were fat?"

The sixteen-year-old laughed. "No!" she exclaimed, gaining back some of her ebullient spirit.

"No?" Chikane said with a smile. "Darn it!" she feigned exasperation. "I thought it was because of that that you suddenly committed to a diet from hell."

"Of course not!" Kotoha laughed harder. "Mii-chan would never say such a thing even if it's true."

"Quite the gentleman," Chikane remarked. "So, what is it that bothers you, little puppy?

She ruffled the lustrous hair of the younger Himemiya, who turned her head and gazed at Chikane in silence. In the next one minute, she lost count of how many times the expression changed on that youthful face. Ruefulness flashed into life before it dematerialized and left the stage to shame. Shame gave birth to hesitation the instant preceding its departure. Hesitation firmed into determination – undoubtedly for keeping quiet – which then summoned guilt. Guilt took flight as ruefulness climbed back onstage and started the procession afresh. She recognized embarrassment once or twice somewhere in the mess, too.

 _What in goodness's name could she be thinking about in that pretty head?_ Chikane wondered.

"I... I'm sorry, kaa-chan," Kotoha apologized. "I... don't know how to explain it to you."

"It is okay," Chikane assured the girl in her gentlest voice. "No need to force yourself when you are not ready. What I must press you on, though, is that you grab a few bites so your stomach would not get upset later."

"I can't," her daughter insisted, sounding a touch exasperated. "I'm honest, kaa-chan. I'm just not in the mood for eating right now."

"I know one who can change your mind." She chuckled. She had been observing her daughter ever since coming back home from the concert tour in Europe. Suffice to say, she had not been disappointed. When she told her lovely wife that she knew just the way to convince Kotoha, she was serious. Of course, she did not say that she would do it herself.

Kotoha blinked at her in disbelief. She said nothing and confined herself to watching in curiosity as Chikane took her cell phone out from her trousers' pocket and accessed the address book. Once she had selected the right number, she pressed _"Dial."_

One ring. Two rings. Three rings. Four rings.

"Something bad happened at home, kaa-san?" inquired the voice of an anxious Shizuka. She knew that Chikane would never have called her during class just because of a trivial reason. "Please tell me she is okay!" She suspected that worries were clawing at her daughter's stomach. Glancing sideways, she found her youngest daughter turning scarlet. Kotoha had realized that Chikane was speaking to her precious sister. As to how precious, she could only guess.

"She is fine," she answered casually, drawing a sigh of relief from the other side. "But she refused to eat even though her stomach is grumbling." Kotoha blushed harder. "Help me persuade her?"

"Let me talk to her, please?"

Chikane gave the phone to the sixteen-year-old, who took it with both hands and pressed it to her ear in a reverent fashion. Her cheeks were as red as they could be, but not from embarrassment alone. Her amethyst eyes glowed with unspoken joy, her beautiful face cloaked by a dense screen of longing, and her heart pounding loud enough to be heard. Anyone with an ounce of sense would be convinced that next to Chikane was the perfect picture of a girl madly in love.

"Onee-chan?" Kotoha called, her voice a whisper. Its caressing quality reminded Chikane of how her beloved wife always spoke to her when they were alone.

"Kotoha?" replied Chikane's eldest daughter. "Is it true that you are not listening to our mother?"

"I'm sorry," the golden-haired girl apologized hastily. She had the sound of someone who was deathly afraid that the person she was speaking to was going to be mad at her.

"Will you be a good girl at home and do what kaa-san asks of you?" inquired Shizuka. Chikane was under the impression that the girl was begging instead of reprimanding, but for now she was just going to hold her peace and see if it was going to work out in the end. "If you do not promise me, I cannot be at ease in class, Kotoha." Chikane's cheeks were warmer than when she first stepped into this room. Listening to this conversation gave her the same feeling as eavesdropping on a pair of lovers intimating in private.

 _So much for your determination, Shizuka,_ she mused.

"I promise, onee-chan!" the golden-haired girl said hurriedly. "I promise!"

"Then enjoy your meal, ne? Class is still going on so... I am going to hang up."

"No, wait, onee-chan!" called the sixteen-year-old. "Can't I talk to you for a little longer?" She seemed to have forgotten that Chikane was sitting right next to her. Her amethyst gems, having regained its liveliness at the beginning of the phone call, gazed back into the distance, her voice dreamy beyond words. "I miss you, onee-chan." She paused and added in a much more caressing tone, "I miss you a lot."

Silence. Shizuka was speechless.

"Onee-chan..." her little sister whispered in an affectionate manner. "Onee-chan... Onee-chan..."

It occurred to Chikane that the younger Himemiya was tasting the words with her tongue, unaware that she did not sound like she was speaking to her blood sister. She seemed to have grown fond of the phrase with which she addressed the older girl. She made it into a mantra employed to exile her loneliness.

 _She has it bad,_ Chikane mused. _Rather ironic that she is not even conscious of it._

"What time are you coming home today, onee-chan? Can we have dinner together?"

"I am sorry, Kotoha," apologized the blue-haired girl's voice, which was quite breathless. "I have a late practice session tonight. I cannot leave before eight. I already brought food, though. You have dinner with our mothers first, okay?" If Shizuka saw the heart-rending disappointment contort her sister's face, she would definitely wish she never uttered these words.

"Okay," said the sixteen-year-old, dejected.

"I... should get back to class. I am going to borrow today's lecture notes from some classmate of yours and bring them home for you, so do not worry about it. Just take a good rest, ne?"

"Okay," the sixteen-year-old muttered in a no more cheerful voice.

Chikane doubted that her youngest daughter cared about that stuff. What the girl desired at this very moment, of course, was to see her precious onee-chan's face. Chikane only wondered what could have brought about this drastic change in the golden-haired girl's innocent and oblivious heart.

"See you in the evening, Kotoha."

"See you..."

The seventeen-year-old hung up. Her younger sister had the look of one who had lost her most treasured belonging. After giving the phone back to Chikane, she sat still in the light of the afternoon sun and stared into the distance, her depression returned to her whole.

"Well," Chikane cleared her throat, "now that you have made a promise to Shizuka, I expect you to honor it." She smiled at the grimace on Kotoha's face. "You do not want to disappoint her, do you?" The little puppy shook her head. "Then what say you we bring the food down to the dining room and ask your Hi-kaa-chan to warm it up?"

The sixteen-year-old nodded and slowly rose to her feet.

 _It seems like my manipulation skill is still intact,_ Chikane mused. _I guess it is in my blood. Too bad that neither of my daughters inherited it from me. What a shame._

* * *

 _Thursday, June 25th, 5:18 PM._

* * *

Sitting in the same position and place that her Chi-kaa-chan had found her earlier this afternoon, Himemiya Kotoha gazed at the rose garden without seeing much aside from the sun sinking toward the horizon. Her stomach was filled, her mood not improved, her heart still heavy as a rock. The phone conversation, aside from succeeding in forcing her to chew down the food, failed to sooth her. She missed her beloved onee-chan more than ever. Never before did she regret skipping school so much.

 _I shouldn't have stayed in the bathroom for so long,_ she reprimanded herself. _If I hadn't passed out, I would have been able to go to school with her, have lunch with her, and maybe stay behind with her until she leaves._ She sighed. _I shouldn't have thought about these things in the first place._

* * *

 _With her body luxuriating in the hot water of the large rectangular bathtub and one hand thumbing an earlobe, Himemiya Kotoha tried to not think about what had chased her into the haven of the bathroom. Yet the more murderously she tried, the clearer it became she wasn't going to succeed._

 _So many things had changed in so short a time period._

 _Had someone told her a few days ago that she would grow exceedingly jealous once she saw her Shizuka about to kiss another girl, she would have laughed. Had they claimed that her heart was going to hurt as though nettled by needles as soon as she realized that her princely sister was dreaming of making love to some person, who might not even be_ real _, she would have thought they were out of their mind._

 _But... she did feel as though her chest was going to explode from agony the instant she heard the azure-haired teenager intimating embarrassingly sultry words to her lover in the dream. While baseless and irrational jealousy against Aizawa Nanami, who might or might not harbor any intention of taking Shizuka away from her, was bad, feeling the same negative emotion toward a person in a dream truly pushed the envelopes of selfishness and irrationality. The Gods of Heaven standing witness, she had never once thought she was that kind of person._

 _Even her personal image of her precious Shizuka had changed. Kotoha once perceived the girl one year her senior as an elder sister she admired, respected, and adored from the bottom of her heart. Now she saw the azure-haired beauty for who she_ truly _was. To Kotoha, the other teenager had grown into a beautiful girl whom she'd like to watch for hours on end, whose hand she'd love to hold when asleep, and in whose gentle arms she'd feel protected for all eternity. In her eyes, Shizuka wasn't that different from a romantic interest._

 _She was sure the water in the tub was well heated – the steam rising incessantly was the proof – but somehow it suddenly felt like she was buried up to her neck in snow._

 _Even the way she acted toward her onee-chan had changed. She was easily depressed and upset because other people came too close to her princely sister. She became so possessive of Shizuka that she almost shouted_ "Onee-chan is mine!" _to the latter's classmate. She had grown so emotionally attached to the blue-haired beauty that a few minutes apart from her were equivalent to a few hours being stuck in a thorn bush. It was unbearable._

 _Kotoha gathered her arms around her body._ What could have gone wrong with me, onee-chan? _she asked herself the same question she did earlier in the morning, trembling harder than ever._

* * *

Trapped in the labyrinth of her own thoughts, she lost her grip on time and the surrounding. She ended up staying in the hot water for so long she fell unconscious. The entire ordeal never did her any good for that matter, seeing how an opportunity to skip classes legitimately, something she'd normally rejoice over, had turned into hour after hour of desperate longing and terrible resentment for being unable to come to school with her precious sister. The dilemma remained unsolved, confusion hovering over her head, and unease staking through her heart at every possible chance.

The interesting thing was that her woes and sorrows took wings as soon as she realized who her Chi-kaa-chan was speaking to on the phone. When it was passed to her and her onee-chan called her name for the first time, the rest of the world spun out of existence. All her ears heard wasShizuka's voice. All her mind registered was Shizuka's words. All she needed was to be able to listen to Shizuka talk for as long as possible. Once the phone conversation ended, she thought that the scenery in front of her had turned gray.

Kotoha sighed. _Should I call onee-chan?_ she pondered, turning her head and eyeing the cell phone on her desk. _Just for a little bit._ _No biggie, right?_ The prospect of speaking to Shizuka warmed her chest, lightened her soul, and sent her stomach aflutter.

 _But what excuse am I going to tell her? She'd think me weird if I said I wanted to hear her sweet voice._ Her heart sank. _Besides, I guess she's in the middle of practice now. She won't appreciate my call..._ She whimpered aloud in frustration. _Gods, why do I miss her so much?_

Soft footfalls from the hallway echoed into her room. Blood rose to her cheeks. Her mothers were currently in the garden and talking care of the roses, something they liked to do together. Otoha-san, the family's trusted maid, was always accompanied by distinctive clinking sounds produced by the ring of keys she brought with her. Kotoha could only think of one person who could be in this house around this time, when the final classes had concluded.

Her heart sang. _Maybe she wanted to go home early to see me,_ she thought in cresting joy.

A knock on her opened door. A high musical note in her ears. An endless crescendo in her head. _Onee-chan!_ Overwhelming emotions soared from the pit of her stomach. _Onee-chan! She's home!_

* * *

Standing at the door to his girlfriend's room, Oogami Mikoto thought his heart was melting. Upon hearing his knock, Kotoha bounded to her feet and spun to her heels and showed him an expression no man would fail to love. Her amethyst eyes were wide with expectation and shone with moisture, her delicate mouth in a huge smile that lit up her gorgeous face more than the setting sun beyond the garden ever could. They had been going out for months now, yet he never received from her anything more than kind smiles and warm greetings. This was the first time she seemed so eager and so glad. _She's so cute!_ he thought.

A second later, a sense of gloominess secured its stranglehold on him.

As soon as the girl in the indigo pajama saw him, her vibrant expression was snuffed out and her smile curdled up and died on her lips. It was nothing more than a change in mood, yet he felt like he had seen two different persons, one full of life and the other but a vessel of desolateness.

 _She thought I was someone else,_ he decided. _Geez, who could it be?_

"Hey there, Kotoha," he greeted her in his usual warm and affectionate manner. Not a scrap of his tumultuous feelings managed to worm into his voice. "Feeling okay now?" Since gaining the _"boyfriend"_ status in the Himemiya family, he was awarded the privilege of walking into the sixteen-year-old's room as long as her door was open. He did so now.

"I'm okay," she murmured in a dejected tone and sat down in the same position he originally saw her in. "Thanks, Mii-chan." She gazed toward the beautiful rose garden. Beyond the open glass pane of her room squatted her mothers, both in gardening gears, who were taking care of the grove of red roses to the north of the oddly designed swimming pool. They hadn't taken notice of his arrival.

"Shizuka said you weren't feeling well." He sat down next to her, smiling. "Also said you passed out in a bathtub. Daydreaming in there for too long, I guess?" he teased.

"Something like that," she muttered quietly, the full blush on her face noticeable even in the hue of the blood red sun. "Did Otoha-san open the door for you, Mii-chan?"

It was a blatant attempt to change the topic. _She doesn't want to talk about it,_ he noted in a mix of amusement and curiosity. _I wonder why._ "Yes," he affirmed.

"You didn't have to come all the way here, Mii-chan," his girlfriend stated. "My house's in the opposite direction from Oogami Jinja. You could have just called me."

"That won't suffice," he argued. "I'm your boyfriend."

He glanced sideways at the golden-haired girl, who lowered her eyes in what he assumed to be guilt, and idly noted that they didn't act like a couple.

Sure, they talked every night on the phone. The problem was that they never exchanged any sort of romantic words during moderately long conversations. Sure, they held hands in public and kissed each other on the cheeks when the time came for them to say goodbye. The bad thing was that he sometimes fell under the impression that he was but _upgraded_ from a childhood friend to a best friend and no higher. More than once he had caught himself wondering whether she was indeed in love with him, and if no, why she accepted his confession in the first place.

"I'm supposed to care for you more than that," he added. "Plus, I wanted to check if you were well enough to leave the house." As far as he was concerned, she was just suffering from depression and no detectable illness. Having some fresh air might do her some good. "Today's the last day of showing for that movie I invited you to two days ago. It'd be a shame to miss it because I do think you'd like it very much." He didn't mention that even though such a thing never appealed to him, he wouldn't mind sitting through it and suffering in silence as long as she had a great time. For him, that was all that mattered.

"I'm not in the mood for a movie right now, Mii-chan." She shook her head. "I'm really sorry." He sensed another reason behind it, judging by the way she refused to look into his eyes.

"Forget about the movie." He smiled at her. "We'll go anywhere you want." He admitted that deep down he did have _some_ ulterior motive for urging her to leave. It wasn't something he was proud of, but as a boyfriend he hated to even think about what his girlfriend, depressed and desperately in need of solace as she was, would do the moment the person she had been waiting for came home.

He noted that she was staring at him. Her amethyst eyes, surprisingly enough, were full of joy and wonder, her depression nowhere in sight. She unsettled him.

"Why didn't I think of that?" the younger of the Himemiya princesses mumbled to herself. "Can we go to Downtown first?" she suggested. "There's a bakery shop between First and Fifth streets. Their cakes and coffees are very good." She gazed up at him with a pair of puppy eyes. His breath caught. Even if he were not in love with Kotoha, there was no way he could have refused her when she looked like this.

"Um, sure," he acquiesced weakly. _Is that it?_ _Cakes are all it takes to cheer her up? I do know she has a sweet tooth but..._ A discordant thought crossed his mind. _Maybe the problem she had was food-related?_ It sounded too ridiculous to be true.

"Thanks!" She beamed brightly at him and rose to her feet. Even her hair, fine strands of sunlight, stirred in excitement.

"Get ready," he told her. "I'll wait for you in the living room, okay?" She nodded and smiled.

Still amazed by her abrupt change of mood, Mikoto stood up and stretched before he left the room. When Himemiya Chikane and her wife, both of whom had shed their gardening gears and now in identical tee-shirts and jeans, came into the living room, they found him atop a couch and chuckling to himself.

He quickly rose to his feet and bowed to them. They smiled, gestured for him to take his seat, and settled themselves down upon one.

"In a good mood, Mikoto?" the azure-haired woman observed. "May I ask why?" He always saw her as a queen. Even in casual clothes, she still retained an air of regality and elegance a real queen would need to strive to match. Thirty-eight years old now, she never looked a day beyond twenty-five. Age never had much effect on the genius musician except ripening her already stunning beauty. His mother, Oogami Makoto, often told his father, Oogami Souma, that she wished she had Chikane's lasting youth.

"Kotoha agreed to go out with me for a little bit." He grinned at her.

"Did she now?" She never turned toward her lovely wife that he saw, but he was certain they had exchanged looks. "Good for her."

"Where are you two going?" Himemiya Himeko inquired in a curiosity. She was another youthful woman whose appearance focused more toward adorability and angelic cuteness rather than a beauty that dried men's throat. Not looking any older than her life partner, she was someone a mere look at whom invoked thought of adoration and worship. He didn't think there existed a person who laid eyes on her and failed to come to conclusion that she was a perfect match for the queen of the Himemiya. He was aware that his father used to have a serious crush on her – it was no secret – but he would confess that he couldn't see how he could be suitable for a woman like her.

"Kotoha mentioned a good bakery store in Downtown, obaa-san," he answered. "She hasn't told me where she wanted to go next." Maybe he still had a chance of persuading her to go to the movie.

"I know that place," Chikane said, smiling. There was a strange glint in her sapphire eyes. "We visited it often since it was right between our house and Ototachibana Academy." There was that feeling that the women had just exchanged looks again. This time, the golden-haired Himemiya let out a small gasp the way some person would when they discovered a secret. It was all very puzzling. "Sometimes," her wife continued smoothly as though uninterrupted, "when Himeko and I picked up Shizuka and Kotoha from school, we would stop over and buy something for desert."

Her wife chuckled softly behind a raised hand. She seemed overwhelmed with mirth.

"Mikoto, what say you we make a wager?" Himemiya Chikane winked at him. "Just for fun. If you win, I will let you pick any number of pictures of Kotoha from our collections. How does that sound?"

He was intrigued. His girlfriend once let slipped that she had some embarrassing photos from her childhood. Asked about it, she shut up and changed the topic. When he pressed her, she threatened to never speak to him again. It would be very interesting indeed to see what she had been trying to hide.

"What if I lose?" he asked the regal woman in jeans and tee-shirt. Standing by her side, her wife had a thoughtful look on her face, probably trying to figure out what Chikane was trying to accomplish.

"A little penalty game." The musician wagged a finger at him. "I intend to make your life far more difficult by asking you to _not_ see Kotoha for one whole day tomorrow." She sounded as though she had won the bet. "You will _not_ even be allowed to call her cell phone."

The photographer gasped again and clammed up the following heartbeat. Comprehension shone in her amethyst eyes. Amusement curved her lips.

"Sounds interesting," he assessed. "But what are we wagering on?"

"On the _first_ thing Kotoha is going to purchase at that bakery store," announced the blue-haired woman. "If I guess correctly, I win. Otherwise, you win. Does it sound fair?"

"Only if you tell me your guess first, obaa-san," he insisted. The musician was Kotoha's mother. It was granted that she knew everything about her youngest daughter's taste. Betting with her on this specific thing was like arguing with a forecaster whether it was going to rain tomorrow. There was a chance of him winning indeed, but that chance was at best slim.

"You are a very smart boy." She laughed. "But I do not mind." Then she told him.

"You might as well bring out your collection right now, obaa-san. She wouldn't buy _that."_

"Does that mean you accept my challenge?" Himemiya Chikane smiled at him.

He didn't hesitate to answer yes.

"Very good." She nodded. "You are an upstanding young man. I know you will keep your words." She glanced at her wife, who was having a hard time controlling her hilarity.

"You know I'd hold you to yours too," he said, smiling.

"But of course." She nodded again. "Well, now that is settled with, let us speak of more pleasant things. Are you prepared for the upcoming competition, Mikoto? I heard that Souma-san was training you."

The conversation moved on with a great deal of laughter for the next fifteen minutes. It ended when Himemiya Himeko eyed the grandfather clock in the living room and frowned.

"How odd," she remarked. "Usually Kotoha doesn't take this long to get ready."

He said nothing in response, but he knew what she said was truth. He wondered why.

"Ah, there she is," the world-renowned musician announced as an elegantly proportioned figure emerged from the hallway leading into the living room.

Mikoto was rendered speechless by the wonder he now had a chance to behold.

In front of him now was a Kotoha he barely recognized and never better dressed. Her lower frame was graced by a pair of white jeans that snugly embraced her thighs and showed off the curves of her hips. Her torso was decently hidden beneath a turtle-necked tee-shirt of the same color that was perhaps designed to emphasize a girl's bosom in the most elegant and unobtrusive manner. Worn over it was a buttonless shirt the pure and distinct sheen on the jade fabric of which proclaimed that it was woven from nothing except silk. The beautiful outfit, breezy yet reserved, suited her like morning dews on a Maiden's Blush.

That wasn't all.

Instead of being worked into a braid, her golden hair was gathered into a narrow and very tidy tail the lustrous length of which was bounded by a scarlet ribbon that was tied at the nape of her neck into a knot bearing the shape of a butterfly. The bangs normally brushing her forehead was now kept over her left temple by a golden pin worked into a small sun complete with its flame-like aura. Adorning her earlobes was a pair of earrings – clipped-on, since she never possessed the resistance to pains needed to have her ears pierced – that were in fact a couple of little pearls. They caught the cool light of the fluorescent tubes over her head and reflect it whole.

Her eyelashes were long, elegant arcs each and every strand of which was separated from another. The smooth skin on her gorgeous face was still moist from a thorough wash and featured a fresh, beautiful shine. Her lips seemed almost imperceptibly fuller than usual and possessing a brighter and glossier shade, the proof that she had taken time applying lip-gloss and done it in an extremely tasteful fashion.

Like the pieces of a puzzle that was brought together in the end to form a complete yet seamless picture, the minor changes the beautiful girl performed on herself had completely altered her appearance and glorified it to the point it could have belonged to a celestial Goddess.

Mikoto was awed and awkwardly conscious of the glaring discrepancy in their clothes. Only clad in the Ototachibana uniform right now, he would pale in comparison should he stand next to her. It would be like a grain of sand trying to match appearance with a diamond freshly polished.

"Come here, Kotoha," called Himemiya Chikane, who was beside herself with barely controlled mirth. "You look beautiful tonight, child," she murmured and stroked her daughter's head once the latter had sat down between her and her wife. "You are going to dazzle the people out there for sure. If Mikoto is not _accompanying_ you," there was a strange note in her voice he couldn't decipher, "your Hi-kaa-chan and I will never let you leave the house without an armed bodyguard."

His girlfriend blushed and kept quiet.

"The one you love is a very fortunate person," the musician continued. She didn't glance at him.

"Of course," the photographer echoed agreement as she smiled at her youngest daughter. Even though the two women seemed to be referring to him, he didn't feel like a part of their conversation. At all. Kotoha must have noticed it too, for she was eyeing her two mothers in curiosity.

"Well then," said Himemiya Chikane. "You have not much time to waste, I would imagine. Now go." She added once the golden-haired girl had risen to her feet, "You will come home around eight, right, Kotoha?" The older Himemiya – both of them! – smiled while the younger reddened to a shade identical to that of the sun setting beyond the double glass pane of the living room.

"I... guess," she murmured shyly and glanced at Mikoto. "Um, should we go, Mii-chan?"

"Right." He nodded. "I'll take my leave, Chikane-obaa-san, Himeko-obaa-san." He bowed to them again where he sat and promptly stood up straight.

"Have fun, children," said the photographer, who waved to them with her smile unwavering on her lips. Her wife never said anything, but the gaze she directed at him was too meaningful to be a coincidence. _"Do not forget our little wager,"_ those sapphire gems seemed to speak straight into his mind.

During the way out and even after he and his girlfriend had climbed inside his silver Acura he still wondered if he should have made the wager with Chikane. It was definitely curious. Why would the woman want to when it was evident she was going to lose? What could she be planning?

"Mii-chan?" called Kotoha, effectively interrupting his train of thoughts.

"Ah, right." He nodded and gunned his car down the driveway. Soon, the four-cylinder vehicle entered the highway and eventually merged into a fast lane leading toward Downtown Mahoroba. Since the highway was more or less empty – all the traffic was heading in the opposite direction – he soon found the exit he needed and swiftly swerved into it. In no time at all, they arrived at their destination.

The two-story Tanbi Delight was a café inside a bakery store. Its storefront made entirely out of glass allowed passers-by to peek in and see the mouthwatering samples they had on display or watch the store's customers immensely enjoying what they were served. Even though Mikoto didn't like sweets, he thought they all looked very tasty.

"Do you want anything, Mii-chan?" Kotoha inquired. "My treat. It's a thank-you for driving me all the way here," she added, probably trying to make sure that he wouldn't insist on paying.

Mikoto pondered it for a moment. Since Himemiya Chikane wanted to wager on the very _first_ thing Kotoha purchased, his chance of winning would be even larger should he told the latter he did want that fruit tart they had on display. And he did.

"Sure!" She smiled and walked with him inside the bakery store.

"Welcome to the Tanbi Delight!" a young man with curly black hair greeted them warmly at the register. Behind him stood a huge and extremely wide fridge that had six sections, every shelf in each full of cakes of various colors and sizes. "And _hello there,_ Ojou-chan," he beamed at the sixteen-year-old. "It's been a while since your last visit!" Even though he was obviously surprised by her dazzling appearance, he never eyed her in the same hungry way that the other customers, mostly men, were. In fact, he seemed like someone who was speaking to a younger sister he adored very much.

"Um, hello, Kurokawa-san." She smiled at him. "It's really been a while."

"And this has to be your boyfriend!" Kurokawa glanced at Mikoto. "Lucky guy!" the older man exclaimed and reached one hand over the countertop toward him once he had received a nod from Kotoha. Mikoto took it and shook it firmly. He liked the curly-haired man.

"How's your wife, Kurokawa-san?" the golden-haired girl asked.

"She's fine!" he announced heartily. "She's nagging me to go on a second honeymoon in Paris," he hooted, "even though our first was in the same place and just ended a month ago. She loves that city."

 _Oh, a newlywed,_ Mikoto mused. _No wonder why._

"Anyways," the curly-haired man cleared his throat, "what do you want today, Ojou-chan?"

Mikoto was certain she'd ask for either one of her favorite cakes or the fruit tart he had requested earlier. He was sure she wouldn't get the one that Himemiya Chikane had guessed.

He was wrong.

"I'd like that usual chocolate cheesecake with pecan nuts, please," the golden-haired girl ordered. "Two slices. And also that fruit tart over at the second shelf on the third section from the left."

Mikoto's jaw threatened to drop to the tiled floor.

"Okie-dokie!" Kurokawa said cheerfully and turned to get what she wanted while she took out her small purse from a pocket on her white jeans.

Mikoto gasped. "But you're lethally allergic to pecan nuts, Kotoha! Why?" It was the exact same thing her mother had been absolutely confident that she would purchase _first_. _But it made no sense!_

His girlfriend paused what she was doing and blinked at him. Her face went scarlet. She opened her mouth to answer, but the curly-haired man who just turned around rode right over her with his booming voice, "So your older sister's still in love with this stuff, eh?" A wide grin decorated his thick lips. "She always ordered two slices when she came in. I wonder when she would up it to three. She doesn't have the same crazy metabolism as you though, so I guess she'll need to exercise _a lot_ to work this off."

"It's for Shizuka?" Mikoto asked quietly and continued at a slow nod from the girl he loved. "But why did you have to go all the way here if you wanted to buy it for her?" A strange sense of discomfort gripped his throat and tried to suffocate him. "I mean, Otoha-san is coming to pick her up later, right? You could have just asked her to stop here and..." He trailed off. Kurokawa eyed him uneasily. Kotoha looked like she wanted to dig herself a hole where she stood and hide in it.

It struck him why the musician had told Kotoha that the latter would be home around eight. _Gods, the two of them knew!_ A terrible chill ripped down his back. _They were aware of the place Kotoha wanted to go! And they never told me!_

"We're bringing it to Shizuka, aren't we?" As usual, his voice was inhumanly calm in defiance of the violent maelstrom in his heart. "That's where you want to go next."

The nod she gave was entirely silent, but he did hear a thunderous gunshot in his head. With it also came the light of comprehension that banished the darkness in his mind and the questions he had earlier. He now knew why Kotoha dressed up despite the fact that she never did when she went out with him.

 _She didn't do it for me,_ he thought in depression. _She did it for Shizuka! Gods, how much has she known already?_ He glanced at the clothes she wore, the clothes he praised mentally, and the clothes he thought meant for him to look _. Who could have expected her to go such lengths for her sister?_

Another mortal blow came the instant he realized that this was entirely his fault. It was him who had given her the idea of coming back to school for Shizuka when he suggested to her that he would take her wherever she wished to go. He should have considered the situation and understood that saying such a thing was pure idiocy when it was clear she was in desperate need to see the older Himemiya. He was a fool! His hand itched to slap his cheeks.

"Here you go, Ojou-chan." Kurokawa handed a paper bag to her and took from her several one-thousand-yen bills in return. "Eat them or put them in the fridge quickly, okay?" He gave her back the change and made a point of avoiding looking in Mikoto's direction. He must have sensed Mikoto's mood.

"Thanks, Kurokawa-san," Kotoha murmured to the curly-haired man and looked up at Mikoto.

Quietly, he took her hand and led her back to the Acura. After climbing in, he slipped the key into the ignition but didn't bother to turn it.

"I know Shizuka likes chocolate," he said with his eyes staring straight ahead but not quite seeing anything, "but not about the pecan nuts. Is it a recent thing?"

"Yes," his girlfriend answered. "She ordered this," she eyed the bag briefly but too lovingly for his comfort, "just to try it out maybe about half a year ago. She developed a fondness for it ever since."

"I'm curious," Mikoto said with a smile. "Since you're her sister, you must know everything she likes and dislikes, right?"

"Maybe not everything," she said diffidently. "We weren't as close as we used to be during the last four months." She suddenly blushed at the end of the sentence and lowered her eyes to her feet. "She might have developed tastes for other things."

"How about me?" he asked. "How much do you know about my preferences?"

"Um," Kotoha hesitated. "Your favorite food is tamagoyaki rolls." She listed a few more dishes.

"Very nice," he said, still smiling. His girlfriend heaved a sigh of relief. Then she blinked.

"Wait a minute." She took a deep and sharp breath, her face pale. "Why didn't I ever notice this before? I mean... she started avoiding me four months ago. It was... it was just a little bit after Valentine's Day, wasn't it?" Her eyes went wide. "But that was when..." She trailed off.

 _Gods,_ Mikoto grimaced. _I shouldn't have brought this up._

* * *

Himemiya Shizuka was sitting on a bench in front of the Ototachibana Auditorium and gazing at the stars and the moon that had come to replace the setting sun when she heard footsteps approaching from behind. Insouciant, she lifted her can of coffee to her mouth and took a sip.

"Break is almost over, Himemiya," announced Aizawa Nanami. "You better go in." In addition to being the class representative, the girl was a prominent violinist in the Ototachibana Symphony, of which Shizuka was a part. Aizawa had been abusing her positions to make sure that she could be with Shizuka as much as she could even though Shizuka had reiterated countless times that she was not interested in having a relationship. The girl with the pony tail refused to acknowledge the flat-out rejection.

"In a minute," Shizuka murmured. "I would like to be by myself for a little more."

"Himemiya," the class rep sat down next to her, showing no sign of having heard the polite and indirect dismissal, "is it okay if I ask a personal question? It's been bugging me."

"If I can answer, I will." She sighed, a little tired and sleepy despite the amount of coffee she had consumed. It might have been a bad idea to agree to participate in this concert. The practice session she had to endure every evening with the Ototachibana Symphony was insane.

"What happened on Valentine's Day?"

The can of coffee slipped from her grasp and landed on the cemented ground, spilling the last of its dark content. Her mouth tightened. "Why do you ask?" Her voice had gone weary and cold.

"Because that was when you changed." Aizawa shrugged. "You had such a horrible mood that you wouldn't answer me half the times I spoke to you. You gradually isolated yourself from the group. And then you started playing all these depressing pieces. You think that I, someone who've been watching you, wouldn't notice?"

Shizuka fell quiet.

"It's painful watching you burying yourself in such a destructive mood," the class rep said. "So if you're having a problem you can't deal with alone, tell me. I'll try to help."

"I... do not think you can." Shizuka sighed quietly. "Family-related matter."

"Really?" The other girl pursed her lips. "Couldn't be your parents. You used to tell me how nice and supportive they were." She paused and continued at a shake of Shizuka's head. "Then does that mean you're having a difficult time with your little sister?"

Shizuka detested lying, so she could do nothing but nod. The violinist was not getting any more information out of her. The conversation on this specific issue was going no further. She would not let it.

Aizawa studied her for a couple of minutes, her face calm and unreadable. She resembled Oogami Mikoto in this aspect. Both hid their emotions so expertly trying to figure out what they thought was no less difficult than measuring the depth of the ocean with a bare hand.

Bored, Shizuka picked up the can of coffee, intending to deposit it into a trash basket nearby.

"You know, Himemiya," the pony-tailed girl said softly, "you should consider getting a romantic interest. She," she cleared her throat meaningfully, "may help you get over your sister. One-sided love can only harm you in the end." The can fell back onto the ground, producing a loud clang that seemed to echo endlessly into the cool night of summer. "Just for the record, I'm always available."

Shizuka was gripped by fear and astonishment. She was speechless.

"Surprised?" Aizawa chortled. "You shouldn't be. I like playing mind games. It wasn't difficult at all. Plus, Oogami Mikoto told me he confessed to your sister on Valentine's Day. No clue bigger than that."

Shizuka stared at her classmate. This certainly was not how she expected an outsider to react once they had learned her secret.

"Don't look at me like that," the other girl said, smiling kindly. "It's true that I was _this_ weird out by your crush on Kotoha-chan," she held up her thumb and her forefinger half an inch apart to show how far, "but since I like you very much, I'm more than willing to look the other way." She brought her fingers together. "And hey, she's gorgeous. I understand why you're obsessed with her."

"You do not," Shizuka declared quietly. "Because... I do not know why myself." Her voice grew bitter. "I did not even realize that I thought of her as more than a sister until Mikoto told me that Kotoha accepted his confession on the phone later that night." It was ironic that the horrible news had come from him. Kotoha had kept it a secret until being asked the following morning. She had been very embarrassed.

"How did you react?" the class rep inquired in curiosity.

"I broke down and wept," she answered in a dark voice. "Thank the Gods that I was alone in my room. It was embarrassing how I cried my eyes out without knowing why... but I did. Mikoto stayed with me on the phone until I pieced myself together. Then he asked me if I was in love with Kotoha." She buried her face in her palms. She remembered the emotional uproar, the heartbreaking agony, and the unbearable sorrows she had felt. Even a fool could diagnose these symptoms and figure out the truth. "I said yes."

That was the start of the whole ordeal. Not wanting to suffer from a broken heart anymore, she distanced herself from the sixteen-year-old in the hope her love would wane in time and eventually perish. Little did she expect that it did not work the way she wanted it to. The only thing her situation was capable of was getting worse.

"So he knew," Aizawa commented. Shizuka gave a weak nod in response. "And he kept it a secret for you. Good guy. Don't worry. You can expect the same from me too. My lips are sealed."

"Thank you," she murmured in gratitude.

"I know your pain, Himemiya." The violinist placed a hand on her shoulder. "Loving someone without being loved in return is pretty painful. But you will consider what I said, right? I think it's time for you to move on." Her voice was racked with hilarity.

"How many times more must I tell you, Aizawa?" Shizuka said in exasperation. "I am grateful for your friendship, I truly am, but you are not my type!"

"But _you_ are my type," the class rep insisted. "Besides..." She blinked and fell quiet. "Speak of the devils..." She gestured at the bottom of the stone flight of stair leading up to the auditorium.

In the light cascading down in waves from the lamp posts, Shizuka saw two people climbing up the steps. One of them was Oogami Mikoto in his Ototachibana uniform, his hand holding a paper bag, his long hair stirring in the night breezes, and his androgynous face betraying no emotion whatsoever. The other... was the sunlight of her heart.

Her eyes went wide. Never before had she seen the sylphine angel better dressed. Never before had she seen her with a brighter smile or a more affectionate expression. With her hair now tied into a long tail and moving freely as she bounced up every step and a few drops of sweat shining like dews on her forehead, she was the very incarnation of sublime radiance and the embodiment of all that was beautiful in this world. No words could describe the torrential love raging in Shizuka's chest and energizing her heart to the speed of light. She thought she was going to melt from the heat that erupted from the pit of her stomach.

Aizawa Nanami took a deep breath. "My, has Kotoha-chan always been this attractive?"

 _Gods, please do not let my knees give way,_ Shizuka prayed with all her heart. _Please do not let me kneel at her feet and confess my true feelings. Please..._

All thoughts took wing.

* * *

Grimacing inwardly, Oogami Mikoto quietly climbed one step at a time with his left hand clenched into a fist in his pocket while his beautiful girlfriend – at this very moment, she _still_ was – bounced up the stair and hurried toward a bench in front of the Auditorium on which Himemiya Shizuka and Aizawa Nanami sat. The paper bag in his right hand was heavy – not because of its trivial weight, but because of whom it was meant for – yet the irritating organ beating in his chest was even much more so. It was like he was carrying a boulder in his ribcage that seemed to grow heavier with every second in which he watched Kotoha bounce up the stone steps with a face so bright noonday couldn't top.

 _Ironic,_ he thought. _I'm her boyfriend, and she never showed me that face._

"Onee-chan!" called the girl he loved. "Onee-chan!" It was just one word, yet the younger of the Himemiya siblings had managed to vest into it so much love and adoration and admiration it could have been a ten-page-long poem one might compose for the person to whom she had surrendered her heart.

Halfway up the stair, he saw the blue-haired girl rise from the bench and proceed in a hesitant manner toward the highest step. The class rep remained seated with one leg swung over a knee and her chin propped atop her right hand's knuckles. While her face was no more readable than his, he was sure the girl was cautiously observing the situation. Still and perfectly calm. She was more similar to him than either of them thought.

"Kotoha..." called the seventeen-year-old as she stood atop the stair, sounding so strained it was obvious she was trying to hold back her feelings. Still climbing, Mikoto was now close enough to her to see the awe and the wonder enveloping her beautiful face. At the following instant though, bitterness took over and dominated her expression as she turned her head and glanced at him. Sadness creased her forehead.

He could tell what thoughts were crossing her mind. His mouth tightened at the knowledge. _No, Shizuka. It's not what you think it is, you lucky girl._

"Onee-chan!" Kotoha leapt off the second step from the very top of the stair and threw her arms around her sister's neck, unleashing her crystalline laughter all the while. Shizuka, surprised by the sixteen-year-old's action, staggered a few steps backward. She looked stunned, overjoyed, dubious, and a hundred other emotions all of which Mikoto would be hard-pressed to name.

At the moment, all Shizuka did was tighten her own arms around her precious sister's slim waist and hug her warmly. Kotoha did a little more than that. Having fallen quiet, she confined herself to smiling sweetly up at Shizuka's face, giving no visible sign she knew she was making a romantic scene out of what was supposed to be a meeting between siblings. Neither did she appear to have any intention of leaving the curves of the other girl's arms. Slightly bothered by the cold hand grasping his heart, Mikoto noticed in a little bit of dismay how close the sisters' faces were, how they seemed to be lost in each other's gemstone eyes, and how their mouths slightly opened as though wanting to exchange kisses.

He coughed as he passed them by, making them give a mild start, and settled down next to Aizawa Nanami on the bench. An amused glance at him was all she gave.

"Why are you here, Kotoha?" Shizuka asked, her voice gentle and soft enough for a lullaby. Her arms remained tightly encircling her little sister's waist.

"I..." the younger Himemiya untied her arms from the older's neck and deposited her dainty hands atop her shoulders, "I wanted to see you, onee-chan... Can't I?" Amethyst gems, round and large and shiny and adorable like a puppy's eyes, regarded sapphire ones lovingly. There were no other words capable of describing the caressing quality of such a tender yet ever so intense gaze.

Excruciatingly jealous due to what he was forced to witness, Mikoto twitched and earned himself a quite curious look from his pony-tailed classmate. She was perhaps wondering why someone normally in perfect control of his emotions could allow them to get to him. He couldn't help it. What his girlfriend had uttered had the sound of someone whispering intimate words to her lover in private.

Whether she was aware of it or not.

He would kill to receive a fraction of the love she was showering her onee-chan with.

"I... I am not saying you cannot," the blue-haired girl answered breathlessly. It was heavens and earth apart from how she usually spoke to her classmates in that she almost always employed an arctic voice and an even chillier façade. Neither was in sight at the moment. Instead of an ice princess, Mikoto saw a lovesick girl whose heart was turned into jelly by her lover's presence and steely determination sublimated by a pair of amethyst eyes. "But I do think that it is better to stay home and wait," she opined in not quite an intentional diffidence. "I will come back later anyway, right?"

"But... but I haven't seen you since the morning!" her baby sister insisted, her unambiguous fervor speaking more about the irritation and the longing she had experienced than her words did. "I don't want to wait anymore, onee-chan."

Mikoto was under the impression that the sixteen-year-old no longer meant anything by the phrase she employed to address her older sister. The word create to denote _proper_ familial hierarchy had now been reduced to nothing more than an endearment, a word barely able to contain an insane amount of love and fondness. She might as well have called Shizuka by name. It wouldn't have made any difference.

He often pitied Shizuka since learning that she was in love with her sister. He didn't anymore.

For all he knew, this battle of his might already be lost.

"I... see," the blue-haired girl mumbled. He could read her mind easily when she looked like this. _Since when was Kotoha this needy?_ her sapphire eyes seemed to be asking. He doubted that she minded the little detail. In fact, he was positive that she was murderously fighting the giddiness induced by the utterly adorable girl in her arms, the one person in the world with whom she was completely infatuated.

"I bought something for you, onee-chan." Kotoha grinned at her sister.

The golden-haired girl, despite her naivety and lack of worldliness at times, wasn't someone who easily lost her grip on the surrounding. She was now, the way she seemed to have discarded all but Shizuka out of her vision. He suspected that she had already forgotten who had brought her to school. Or even how she got here in the first place. "Guess what?"

"Chocolate cheesecake with pecan nuts," the older girl answered without hesitation.

Her sister blinked. Her eyebrows shot off her scalp. "How did you do that?" She tilted her head and eyed the blue-haired girl curiously.

"The Tanbi logo is on the paper bag Mikoto held," explained Shizuka. "Rather straightforward."

"You could have tried a few wrong guesses to humor me," Kotoha chided and pouted in a playful and somewhat innocently flirtatious fashion. Another lesson today. Mikoto didn't know his girlfriend – the term, too, was growing less meaningful after every use – was capable of it. "Weren't you used to do that to make me smile?" She idly rearranged the blue-haired girl's stiff collar and lapel, which were perfectly fine and in no immediate need of straightening. Her devoted expression and fond gestures made her a doting wife ensuring that her husband was dressed properly for work.

The annoying thing was that he could tell that his girlfriend still assumed her outrageous actions, impulsive at best, were appropriate between siblings. _Hell no!_ She was blissfully ignorant of the fact that not even lovers dared display such intimacy in public. But then... he didn't think she was aware that he and another person were sitting right here and watching them anyway.

It took the older Himemiya a few moments, during which she stared and blushed at the younger's face, to swallow audibly and answer in a weak and diffident voice, "I... will do that next time?"

"I forgive you," Kotoha declared in amusement and slipped out of the seventeen-year-old girl's tight embrace. While the latter remained immovable on the ground and staring at her empty hands, the former flitted toward where Mikoto sat. "Can I have the cakes, Mii-chan?" she requested sweetly and held out her hand. It was an inch from his. It was half the world away.

He took the fruit tart out and handed her the paper bag. It didn't look tasty anymore. He wanted to toss it away. Angrily. The first jerk he saw on the way home was going to be plastered with this, he vowed to himself. And if he found none, that really irritating dog in the neighbor's house that barked at anything that moved might have it. In its face.

"But I do not have time for it, Kotoha," Shizuka said in regret. "My break is about to end."

Disappointment seized her sister. "But... but it's going to melt if you don't eat it soon..." Her eyes alternated between the older girl's melancholic face and the two plastic boxes in her hand. She seemed on the verge of panic, not having a clue as to what she should do in this predicament. Mikoto sighed. The Kotoha he knew – the Kotoha _she_ showed him every day at least – wasn't like this. It was like her wits had already been tangled like a mess of yarns.

"You know what, Himemiya?" Aizawa Nanami spoke and rose from the bench. She stretched her arms tiredly. "You stay and _entertain_ Kotoha-chan." The emphasis she placed on the word was noteworthy. Especially when it added more color to Shizuka's cheeks. Kotoha, on the other hand, remained oblivious. "I'll inform sensei that you have a visitor and ask her to give you like fifteen more minutes. The rest of us can practice the pieces that don't include the flute."

Kotoha's expression brightened so rapidly it hurt Mikoto's heart.

"I owe you one, Aizawa," Shizuka thanked the class rep, grateful and relieved.

"Don't mention it." The bespectacled girl gave a dismissive wave of her hand. Her obsidian eyes rounded on Mikoto. "Don't you want to see us practice, Oogami-kun?" It wasn't a suggestion. It was a command backed by the full authority of a class representative who refused to take _"No"_ for a response. Not many in the class had the nerve to challenge her when she wanted them to do something.

"Well, sure," he assented. Not that he wanted to remain here and watch this painful sight anyway. "Lead the way." He rose to his feet. "I'll see you in a bit, Kotoha."

She didn't hear him. She never spared so much as a glance in his direction. All of her mind was hopelessly devoted to the person standing in front of her. He could have been a mosquito hovering around someone who had earphones on and her music banging into her head. Shaking his head in frustration, he fell in next to Aizawa Nanami and walked with her inside.

"Had I not known that Kotoha-chan was Himemiya's baby sister," the pony-tailed girl spoke up a few minutes later, while they were treading under a dimly lit and empty hallway, she with her hands folded behind her back and he with his in his pants pockets, "I would have thought what we saw back there was a love scene. Isn't it cute?" The secretive smile she wore on her lips annoyed him a little bit.

"You figured it out, didn't you?" He cut to the chase. "There's no way Shizuka would tell you the truth." Himemiya Shizuka was a mussel when it came to things she didn't want others to know. Trying to pry her mouth open would take the same amount of effort necessary to dry out the sea. It was impossible.

"You're sharp." She chuckled.

"I can't tell what you're thinking, class rep," he said, his soft voice booming under the vaulted ceiling. "I thought you were dead set on seducing Shizuka."

"Bet your life on it," she confirmed.

"Then why in hell's name did you leave these two by themselves even after what you've seen?" He cocked an eyebrow at her. "You must have realized that it wasn't a good thing for your conquest."

"Oh come on. Himemiya's been suffering for months now, so cut her some slack and allow her a bit of happiness, won't you?" She wagged a finger peremptorily. "Plus, nothing pleasant can come off me dragging her back to practice. Emotional as she was, she'd screw up and everybody would be upset. This way, I managed to score some points with her. I see it as a spring board for future use, Oogami-kun."

"You're confident that her love won't go anywhere, aren't you?" he observed.

"Correct," she announced judiciously.

"You have no idea." He laughed. The mirthless laughter he unleashed was no less eerie than an owl's weeping in the dead of night. "You have no idea at all, class rep." She shivered at that.

* * *

"You should eat the cakes, onee-chan," Himemiya Kotoha urged as she settled down on the bench, made out of cold metal and lacquered in black, next to her most precious person, a beautiful girl with azure hair and a pair of sapphire eyes that could sear into her heart. "You don't have much time left." She took a small plastic container out of the paper bag, opened it, and handed it to her sister. Enclosed within were a plastic fork and a triangular slice of chocolate cheesecake a small bite of which would send her into seizure and kill her unless she was taken to a hospital quickly enough. Her allergy to pecan nuts was lethal.

"Thank you, Kotoha," the seventeen-year-old girl murmured gratefully and took the transparent plastic container from her hand. She picked up the fork.

In silence, Kotoha fondly watched her beloved onee-chan enjoy her favorite desert. It was indeed a magical sight. Shizuka was genteel in everything she did, and dining was no exception. Grace seemed to be flowing in her veins, regality embodying her smallest gestures, even the way she employed her thumb and fore and middle fingers to hold the utensil at its neck. Awed, Kotoha pored over the absolute elegance present when the seventeen-year-old eased the edge of the fork down the black slice of cheesecake, when she sank the three tines into the small piece she just cut, and when she slowly lifted it up to her cherry petal mouth. Cheeks warming, Kotoha marveled silently at the unadulterated enchantment radiating from the older Himemiya like light from the sun when her deliciously kissable lips claimed the small piece, when her delicate jaw worked silently, and when her throat clearly showed the delectable content of her mouth traveling downward. Throat dried, Kotoha beheld the contentment rippled outwardly from the blue-haired mermaid's blissful radiant smile.

She had watched Shizuka eat countless times in her life, yet this was the first instance in which she found herself charmed by such a seemingly ordinary and mundane act. Gods above, she had always known that her sister was attractive, but never before did she fathom how much.

Face hotter than a furnace for reasons too vague to comprehend, she continued to treasure every passing heartbeat and drink in the mesmerizing sight of the wondrous creature sitting on the very same bench, sensing that she was losing her grip on the rest of the world. She only snapped out of it when the earthly twin of the waning crescent in the starlit heavens laid a hand on her shoulder and shook it with the gentleness one would employ to touch a fragile blossom.

"Kotoha?" the seventeen-year-old called anxiously. No more than a fourth of the cake remained in the plastic container. "Kotoha?"

"Yes?" she answered. Her voice was much more breathless than she had expected.

"Your face is very red." Shizuka laid a smooth palm across her forehead. "So warm," decided the girl in the Ototachibana burgundy vest and skirt in a tone racked with worries. "Please tell me you are okay." That palm trailed downward and cupped an already burning cheek. Its soothing touch inflamed her skin further. Those fingers could have been wreathed in a furnace fire. One so pleasant Kotoha would let it incinerate her to ashes.

"I'm okay," she confirmed weakly. Her right hand rose on its own accord to touch the back of that of her sister. She caressed it almost unconsciously. The gorgeous seventeen-year-old shivered and blushed mildly at Kotoha, but she didn't take her hand back. "Don't worry, ne, onee-chan?" The very last word tasted amazingly sweet on her tongue. She liked saying it. She loved listening to the caress in her own voice. It was amazing how she could adore someone so much.

She gently lowered Shizuka's hand to her lap, where she held it lovingly with both of hers. It was warm, it was a bit sweaty, but it was soft. She recalled it ruffling her hair to calm her down when she was crying for the silliest reason. She remembered it stroking her back when she was still a child and having trouble falling asleep.

Her gorgeous face basking in a rosy glow that spoke of mild embarrassment and barely concealed delights, Shizuka cleared her throat and changed the topic. "Are you going on a date with Mikoto later?" She deposited the last bite of cheesecake into her cute little mouth and consumed it quietly.

Surprised, Kotoha shook her head. "Why did you think so?"

"You are dressed so nicely," her beautiful sister pointed out, her alluringly deep voice tinted with a thin layer of bleakness, her normally addicting chocolate to the ear now flavored with a dash of sorrow. It was puzzling, Kotoha decided. "Or have you gone somewhere already?"

"We only stopped by the bakery on our way here," she allowed.

"Then why?" Shizuka stared at her, confused.

She blushed hotly and lowered her eyes to her lap. Her cheeks could have been a pair of hot coals. "No special reason," she whispered as one of her hands threaded its fingers with the beautiful one she was having in her grasp.

She had never noticed it before, but it did feel so right, so fitting, and so natural for their hands to be joined like this. It was so different with Mikoto's. His was so large it looked more like it had swallowed hers rather than held it. Neither was it this smooth or tender. It was steel beneath flesh and covered with calluses caused by working the tennis racket murderously everyday.

His hand never made her so warm inside just by offering hers such a simple touch.

"I just wanted to look pretty for you to see, onee-chan." She swallowed in shyness. "I thought you'd appreciate it." She stole a glance at her gorgeous sister, who was staring at her with a pair of sapphire gems aglow with evident surprise and open wonder. "Don't you, onee-chan?" She lifted her vacant hand and brought the tidy stream of azure that was Shizuka's hair to her heaving front. She quietly brushed its narrow length and luxuriated in every silky strand she touched with a loving caress that she never knew she was capable of. Her blood sang in her veins.

"I do," her precious enchantress answered fervently. "With all my heart, I do. You are so beautiful I can watch you all night and never get tired." She clammed up the way someone would when they realized that they had spoken too much. Then she blushed a sunset. Even the tips of her ears were red.

The sight, the melodious words, and the raw emotions that flowed through them brought a huge smile to Kotoha's lips. She couldn't see it, but the heat on her face assured her that her cheeks were bearing the same shade as that of the girl one year her senior. Mikoto often praised her for how pretty she looked, yet his compliments came nowhere close to achieving this heartwarming and flattering effect.

"Were you being honest..." she whispered, "or did you just say it to make me happy?"

"Have you ever looked into a mirror, Kotoha?" her sweet sister whispered back. "Have you truly been unaware of how gorgeous you are?" As more and more musical notes left the seventeen-year-old's lips, she grew weak, she became helpless, and she felt overjoyed. "Do you not know I often envied Mikoto he was closer to you than I was?" Shizuka closed her mouth with a click of her teeth and took up an insidious study of the cemented ground. She looked like she had swallowed her tongue.

Blushing harder than ever, Kotoha sensed a wave of something soothing as a balm and warm as a hearth in winter envelop her racing heart. Unable to control her fireworks going off in her soul anymore, she quietly shifted toward the blue-haired beauty so that the distance between their bodies were practically gone. Then she leaned in and gently rested a side of her face on her onee-chan's shoulder while her arms wound tightly around that of the girl she cherished.

"Envy isn't good for you, onee-chan, especially when it's unfounded," she murmured. The elder Himemiya gave a small start before she realized Kotoha's tone was too sweet, too fond, and too bashful to be chiding her. "Regardless of how the relationship between Mii-chan and me will turn out, he'll never be as close to me as you are. It's the truth. At the moment, he's only in here." She lifted Shizuka's hand and laid its palm upon her forehead. "And you... you're here." She gently pulled the trembling hand of her graceful mermaid down and shyly deposited it on her left breast, beneath which her heart was drumming like thunder. "Have always been. Always will be. Forever."

Shizuka blushed within an inch of her life and quietly withdrew her hand from Kotoha's chest. She was dazed, mesmerized, and captivated. In the course of her life, she had seen many sides of her sister. She knew a strong-willed Shizuka, an affectionate Shizuka, a cool-faced Shizuka, and even a painfully distant Shizuka... but an embarrassed Shizuka was a sight rare as snow falling in the heart of summer or the sun rising in the dead of night.

Nose issuing breaths hot as steam, she lifted her head and turned it just so she could press her lips on her sister's burning cheek. She then offered it a loving kiss that lasted longer than any she had delivered in her life. That which she gave Oogami Mikoto when they parted ways every afternoon could have been a slap on the wrist.

"Kotoha..." her onee-chan whispered, dumbstruck.

Smiling to herself in overflowing rapture, she rested her head upon Shizuka's shoulder again and closed her eyes. "Finish the other slice," she suggested, her soft voice saturated with contentment. Her life up to this point had been blessed... yet the powerful but ever so tender sensation she was experiencing in her soul right now would give a new meaning to _"bliss."_

When she approached Shizuka less than a week ago, she but aimed to revive a relationship. She didn't expect what she had accomplished was deliver her personal happiness into her onee-chan's hand and leave it to the gorgeous seventeen-year-old's mercy. Her smile was now tied to the blue-haired princess's merest looks, the pace of her heart devoted to the smallest shift of expression on the elder Himemiya's face, and her eyes eternally bound to the very place where her blood sister was.

 _It's like I'm in love with her,_ she noted in amusement.

The thought that was meant to be nothing more than a mental joke ended up being far fonder than she had intended. She didn't mind. It was true that Shizuka had become an indispensable part of Kotoha's world. Maybe even all of it. Smiling to herself, she relaxed and enjoyed this blessedly gratifying moment. Comfortable darkness eventually swallowed her whole.

* * *

Coming back to the front of the Ototachibana Auditorium, Oogami Mikoto found a scarlet-faced Himemiya Shizuka sitting very still on the bench with her sister, who was sound asleep. Even though immersed in a deep slumber, the golden-haired girl was holding tightly to the blue-haired one's arm and smiling in utmost contentment. Were anybody to tell him that this person was the same sixteen-year-old who was wallowing in misery in her room earlier in the afternoon, he would have laughed in hysteria at that person's face.

"Doesn't she look like an angel when asleep?" remarked Aizawa Nanami.

He concurred with a nod. It was a façade of Kotoha he rarely had a chance to see.

"I'll take her home, Shizuka," he offered. "You come back to practice." His class rep shot him a meaningful look. She was teasing him that he only wished to separate the two sisters for his own gain. He ignored it. It wasn't true anyway. He was more worried that sleeping under the open sky in this kind of cool weather might harm his girlfriend's health.

"Yes..." the older Himemiya answered absentmindedly and retrieved her arm from the younger's tight grip in such a gentle way that the latter only stirred slightly, whispered an excruciatingly fond _"onee-chan"_ with her lips still curved in a satisfied smile, and drifted back to sleep. Shizuka, who seemed to have all her determination crippled by the overdose of cuteness she was just hit with, looked ready to slip her arm back into where it used to be.

Sighing inwardly at the lovesick girl, Mikoto stepped forward. He never had a chance to take a second step, for the seventeen-year-old had given a mild start and immediately put her arms around her sister as though she feared he would take the younger girl away. The agony that contorted Shizuka's often icy visage drew another sigh from him and an exasperated shake of head from the pony-tailed class rep.

"Why don't you carry her to the parking lot for me, Shizuka?" he relented.

The look of indescribable gratitude and relief that she offered Mikoto hurt him in the same way a dagger would when it plunged into his chest. His mouth tightened. Gods, but why did he feel like he was the bad guy here? Kotoha was his girlfriend, for pity's sake! She accepted his confession! Frustrated, he slapped his forehead and almost groaned aloud.

"Just curious, Oogami-kun," said his bespectacled classmate as they strolled toward where the car was parked. Shizuka was trailing behind them with Kotoha cradled cozily in her arms. Occasional glances revealed that the older Himemiya sometimes would grace the younger's forehead or cheeks with lingering kisses, appearing deathly afraid that she would never have a chance to do so again once her sister left the curves of her arms. The sight did nothing to allay his irrational guilt.

"About?" His voice remained perfectly calm although he did want to snap.

"Has Kotoha-chan always been this affectionate and clingy to Himemiya?" his classmate spoke in a tone low enough for his ears alone. Not that the blue-haired girl could hear anything the way she devoted her attention to her sister and the road in front of her anyway. "I mean, I saw Kotoha-chan like... once prior to yesterday, so I couldn't tell."

"I'm not too sure how they acted in private," he said. "But I can swear she... never behaved in this particular manner before."

"How interesting," remarked the class rep, her facial expression grim. She too, had realized that the chance of her succeeding in seducing Shizuka was much slimmer than she had expected. For one, she wasn't even a _third_ as cute as Kotoha. For another, the sixteen-year-old had been staying in Shizuka's heart for so long erasing the former's deeply engraved image would amount to the same work one might have to do to push a hill off of its foundation. Barehanded. "Wonder what could have changed her."

 _Wouldn't I want to know,_ he thought.

The short walk eventually drew to an end. Once Oogami Mikoto disabled the alarm of his silver Acura, he opened the front passenger door and stood aside to let Shizuka complete a task she despised with every fiber of her existence. The girl had been avoiding Kotoha to preserve her sanity, yet when her sister reentered her life, she got carried away by her overflowing love and murdered her own determination, thereby surrendering more of her heart with every second she spent by the golden-haired girl's side. It should be torturing her at the moment, when the time had come for her to part with the person she loved.

Still, she was strong enough to do it. Sapphire eyes dimmed by anguish, she laid the sixteen-year-old upon the passenger seat with the same gentleness a mother would lower her child into a crib. Her lips tight with despair, she adjusted the seat to ensure that the golden-haired girl was in the most comfortable position and carefully buckled her up. The following several minutes she spent kneeling in despondence on the hard ground and watching the sleeping beauty before rising to her feet and eased the car door into place.

"Drive slowly," she advised. "Try not to wake her. She hates it when her sleep is disturbed."

"Sure," Mikoto acknowledged and climbed into the Acura. He took no time in starting it up and back out of its parking space. Waving to Shizuka and Aizawa Nanami, he gunned the car toward the exit.

The Gods must have decided to have some fun with him.

Even though he maneuvered the four-cylinder vehicle with a smoothness that would keep even a baby asleep, he failed to sustain his girlfriend's slumber. Ten seconds down the mild incline, she stirred, groaned softly, and opened her amethyst eyes. Once she realized where she was as well as where she was going, she was overcome with shock. Her face immediately paled.

 _"Stop the car, Mii-chan!"_ she yelled in virulent distress. _"Stop the car!"_

"Why?" He shot her a brief frown. "I'm driving you home!"

 _"No!"_ She fumbled violently with the seat belt. A normal person would have taken no more than two seconds. She in her mentally unstable condition used up two minutes to get it undone. Then she pushed the car door open, ready to jump off.

Horrified, Mikoto slammed the brake and forced the vehicle to skid into an abrupt halt. He stared in stunned stillness as the girl of his dreams climb off her seat and hurried in the opposite direction as fast as she ever did in her life. Mind clouded by a mix of resentment and desolation, he got out of the sedan and watched the most humbling episode of his life unfold in the deserted parking lot.

Shizuka and Aizawa, who had noticed that something had gone awry, started toward the golden-haired girl. The older Himemiya was walking slowly at first, picked up her pace, and finally sprinted at top speed. Body cold and eyes burning, he thrust his hands into his pockets and clenched them into fists, never having the smallest intention of hastening even when his girlfriend tripped on something and fell flat on her stomach. Not that he had to do anything. Wincing but not letting out one single cry of pain despite the crybaby she was, Kotoha quickly pushed herself back to her feet and resumed her anxious journey toward a girl born of the same blood and flesh, into whose open and welcoming embrace she delivered herself. It was like watching the reunion a pair of lovebirds who had been separated for years.

When Mikoto arrived at where the Himemiya siblings stood, Shizuka was clutching the younger girl's hands and making a big deal out of nothing.

"Look at these!" she fussed, her sapphire eyes thoroughly examining her sister's palms, her voice filled with pain and distress. Red and swollen those bruises might be, they were not so serious that they warranted such an outburst. _Heck, none of them is even bleeding,_ Mikoto groaned in his head. "Why were you running, Kotoha?" she demanded. "Why did you get out of the car in the first place?!" Aizawa Nanami was staring at her, apparently at a loss for words. He wasn't sure it was because of the complete destruction of Shizuka's façade or the golden-haired girl's reckless behavior.

The lovesick girl noticed Kotoha's teary amethyst eyes and her trembling shoulders. She panicked.

"I am sorry!" she apologized in the deepest regret and sincerity Mikoto had heard. He noted in wonder how Kotoha grew up to be such a nice girl even though the rest of her family spoiled her rotten. That included an older sister who tried to be stern at times but failed miserably the moment she started. "I am so sorry, Kotoha! I did not mean to scold you. Please, forgive me!"

The younger Himemiya buried her face in the older's ample chest and gripped the burgundy fabric covering her shoulders with her bruised hands. She trembled harder. "Please..." Kotoha sobbed, her tears falling melodiously upon the breast of Shizuka's Ototachibana vest, "please let me stay here, onee-chan. I don't want to leave. I want to be with you." More tears. More sobs.

It was the first time since many, many years ago that Mikoto saw her cry. Worse, it was him who caused her sorrow. He suddenly had an urge to get back inside his Acura and drove it into some concrete wall. Or flew it off some hilltop.

Shizuka was just as stunned as he, but her resulting mood was heavens and earth apart from his. She had the looks of someone who just came across the greatest treasure. If there were a word that could describe the joy her beautiful face was radiating, it didn't exist in any dictionary in this world. The class rep was so astonished by this new facet of the girl she liked her jaw threatened to drop to the ground.

"It is okay, Kotoha," the seventeen-year-old assured the girl she loved. "You can go home with me later, ne? Cry no more, please?" She pulled Kotoha into a tight, intimate hug and squeezed the latter within the curves of her arms. The furious weeping immediately ceased. He was privy to but a limited view of his girlfriend's drenched face, mostly hidden by her sister's bosom as it was, but he could tell that her lips were graced with a joyous smile even amidst the moisture staining her cheeks.

Mikoto ground his teeth together. There were very few people in this world who could calm the golden-haired girl down once she had started crying. None of these existed outside the Himemiya family. None of these was better at the task than the Himemiya couple's eldest child.

He was reminded of a particular incident in which Kotoha scraped her knees on the playground and bawled her eyes out. He tried to bribe her with cotton candies or any type of sweets that popped up in his innocent mind. He attempted to comfort her with the most soothing words a child could come up with. Fifteen minutes passed and he had yet to succeed. It was then that Shizuka came back from buying some ice cream. As soon as the blue-haired girl kissed her sister on the cheek, no more tears trickled out from the wells of these amethyst eyes. He didn't think even Chikane or Himeko was capable of such a feat.

He glanced at his pony-tailed classmate. Her blank face declared in no uncertain terms that she neither liked nor appreciated the sight. _Understand what I meant, class rep?_ Mikoto thought in bitterness.

"Sensei will not mind if my sister stays in the concert hall and watch, will she?" Shizuka turned to the bespectacled girl.

The class representative wasn't so eager to do her crush a favor now. "I... don't think she will," admitted a begrudging Aizawa Nanami.

"Then let us go inside quickly," the older Himemiya suggested in a fond voice suitable for pillow talk. Mikoto didn't think she was aware of it. Maybe it had always been how they spoke to each other. The possibility irked him very much. "It is growing cold out here, and you do not dress warmly enough." She quickly undid the buttons on her burgundy vest and put it on her sister's fragile frame. "We need to take care of the bruises on your too. We have a first aid kit in there." She stroked Kotoha's head. "Does it still hurt?" Her face was a faithful depiction of anguish. He could have sworn it was she who got injured.

"It does," confessed the sixteen-year-old, who happened to have the least resistance to pain in the world. "But I can take it. I'll be okay, onee-chan."

"Good girl." Shizuka smiled and ruffled her fine golden hair.

A little irritated, Mikoto coughed and reminded them that he had yet to leave. Kotoha, who had forgotten that inconvenient little detail, flushed darkly enough to rival the shade of the vest she was holding together at her front and made a point of avoiding looking at him.

"I am very sorry to put you through all this trouble, Mikoto," Shizuka apologized. _"Guilt"_ was too lighthearted a term to describe the emotion featured prominently in her sapphire gems. "I will treat you to lunch some other day."

"Never mind." He gave a dismissive wave of his hand and turned around. "I'm going home first. Have a good evening, folks." He walked toward his car but stopped after a few steps. "And Kotoha?"

"Yes, Mii-chan?" Her voice was low and racked with embarrassment.

"Tell Chikane-obaa-san that I will keep my word."

He strode forward, thinking to himself that when the parents of the girl he loved were dead set on pairing her up with her sister – _how very supportive of them_ – victory was very far from his reach. And the most ironic thing about this ordeal was that Kotoha never knew how she truly viewed Shizuka in her heart.

One of the unanswered questions was, of course, why she accepted his confession in the first place? Why did she remain his girlfriend when she never even cared to learn his favorite food?

 _It's not tamagoyaki rolls, Kotoha,_ he thought. _You_ assumed _it was_ onlybecause _I ate them all when_ you _made them for me. You never knew that it was one of the dishes I hate most. In fact,_ all _of your guesses... were wrong._


	4. Siblings and Lovers

**_CHAPTER FOUR: Siblings and lovers._**

* * *

 _Friday, June 26th, 7:03 AM._

* * *

Upon waking, Himemiya Shizuka found herself on her left side, her front facing the sliding glass pane near the bed. Her body up to her shoulders was covered by a thin bed sheet, a side of her head cushioned by a fluffy pillow identical to what she had in her room. Her left arm was stretched forward to provide a resting place for a girl lying supine beneath the same bed sheet, a sylph whose peaceful sleeping face basked in the gentle light of the early morning, a girl whose cheeks were aglow with a rosy tint, and an angel whose stunning presence had graced many of Shizuka's dreams. A few of them were very bleak, most fond, several torrid and involving things Shizuka would never have the nerves to disclose to another soul on her deathbed.

 _Sometimes I cannot tell whether you are making my life more meaningful,_ she thought, _or more difficult than it already was, my love._ She leaned in and kissed the golden-haired angel softly on the cheek. _Why were you so bent on staying by my side even though I tried so hard to push you away?_

What happened during the previous evening was the proof of the sixteen-year-old's insistence.

* * *

 _Thursday, June 25th, 10:24 PM._

* * *

 _"It is rather late already," observed Himemiya Shizuka, who was sitting on her bed in her Ototachibana vest and long skirt. Although she had been in her room for quite a while now, she never had a chance to change into a more comfortable outfit. Soon after coming home, her little sister had followed her into her once safe sanctuary and initiated a conversation that lasted for two hours and a half. Since she had always loved talking to the sixteen-year-old – the two of them used to do so for hours on end every night back when Shizuka had yet to realize she had contracted the disease named love – she became oblivious to the flow of time and lost her grip on the surrounding. It was bad now that she thought about it. She could have been too engrossed in a conversation with her sweetheart to keep her tongue in check. She hoped she had not spilled any of the secret buried in the darkest corners of her mind._

 _"You should go to bed, Kotoha," she suggested._

 _"Can I stay a little more, onee-chan?" the golden-haired girl beseeched. In the same glorious outfit she had appeared in school several hours ago, she was seated comfortably on the desk chair that she had moved closer to the bed. "I still have so many things I want to tell you about." Her pleading tone hurt. Her panicking expression hurt even more. Her imploring gaze hurt the most._

 _"Leave them for tomorrow, ne?" Shizuka feigned a smile. It nearly failed to coalesce. "I would be very happy to listen to you then. Besides, I am a little tired and sleepy," she added. It was true. Besides, she feared that if she kept speaking to her first love in such a euphoric state, she could not guarantee that she would not slip and end up spilling the truth._

 _"Then... then is it okay if I sleep with you tonight?" the younger Himemiya implored desperately._

That is actually worse despite how much I would like you to, _Shizuka thought_. _The memories of this morning surfaced in her mind._ Once is enough. I do not wish to risk you seeing me in such a manner a second time, Kotoha. I... do not want you to be disgusted with me...

 _Reciprocated feelings brought never-ending bliss. Unrequited love was the harbinger of constant agony. She knew that as well as anybody who had experienced a heartbreak. After four months of endless misery and torments, it was a miracle that she was still alive._

 _"You promised me last night, did you not?" she reminded the golden-haired Himemiya._

 _Her sweetheart's face paled. "You're right, onee-chan," the little angel murmured dejectedly and rose from the chair. Her amethyst eyes were stained with sadness. Shizuka lowered her sapphire to the carpeted floor of her room, fully aware that if she continued watching, her determination would crack. "Will you... walk with me to my room at least?" begged the light of her heart, tethering on the verge of tears. "Please?" Her voice was shaking._

 _"Why bother?" Shizuka hesitated. "It is but a few steps away."_

 _"I don't care," her sister said in desperation. "A few more seconds with you are all I need, onee-chan!" As though hearing what she had uttered for the first time, she went blank in the face and stared at the carpeted floor. At the following heartbeat, her complexion turned a deathly scarlet shade. A few more moments of stunned silence, during which Shizuka heard her heart went from a normal pace to that of a galloping horse, the little angel regained her voice. "Can't you just spoil me one more time, onee-chan?"_

How could she change so drastically in such a short period of time? _Shizuka wondered, amazed._

 _During the last four months, the younger Himemiya had no problem not seeing her or talking to her at all for days on end. At the moment, she might as well have been tied to the girl's heart. Kotoha now needed her so much she went all the way to school just to see Shizuka, she reacted violently when Mikoto tried to drive her home, and she was almost in tears when she knew she could not sleep in Shizuka's bed. Even before she distanced herself from Kotoha, the latter's behaviors toward her were no where near this intense or passionate._

She could not have fallen in love with me, could she? _She dispelled the thought with a shake of her head._ Pure idiocy. She is not I. She will never harbor such a twisted and abnormal feeling.

 _"Onee-chan?" called the light of her world. The younger Himemiya was trembling slightly where she stood, her amethyst eyes shining with unshed tears. Her forehead was creased with something bordering on grief._

 _"Okay," Shizuka caved in._

 _A wave of relief crashed in on her sister's face and lingered there for the duration of the short walk between their doors. As expected, it ebbed away at the moment of arrival. A person who drank seawater to quench her thirst would be an apt metaphor to describe Kotoha at this very moment, Shizuka noted. Satisfaction only lingered for a split second before the thirst flared up again with more intensity than the last time it did. The grief, despair, and agony warring for supremacy on her sister's lovely face were a hammer blow at Shizuka's chest._

 _"Goodnight, onee-chan," the sixteen-year-old muttered once she had opened the door to her room and stepped one step inside. She looked ready to back out._

 _Sensing successive pangs of guilt summoned by the mental pain she had caused her sweetheart, Shizuka put herself in front of the latter and quietly deposited a lingering kiss on each of her pale cheeks. "Sweet dreams, Kotoha," she wished the girl she loved._

 _The kisses backfired. They failed to alleviate the sorrow of the sylphine angel. They did nothing to lessen the anguish laden in these luminous gems. They pulled down Kotoha's eyelids and released an onslaught of tears from their overflowing wells. Shizuka was stunned. Her body went cold. Her mind spun. Her stomach performed a few somersaults._

 _Saying naught, the younger Himemiya tugged at her burgundy sleeve with her thumb and index finger. Her tight lips couldn't keep in the strangled sobs voiced in her throat. Her eyes were squeezed shut but the tears still leaked out and streamed down her lovely face. There existed not many sights more heartrending than this._

 _Shizuka melted from inside out, realizing that her precious sister had completely reverted to a little girl she knew well, an adorable needy girl who could not bear to be apart from her onee-chan, and a sweet obedient girl she had spent her childhood loving and keeping safe._

I should not have refused her! _Shizuka berated herself harshly._ I should have remembered how panicked she was when Mikoto tried to take her home! Gods, how thoughtless can I be?

 _She pulled her precious sister into a tight and intimate hug. "Would you mind if_ I _stay with_ you _tonight, Kotoha?" she whispered into her first love's ear. The weeping stopped._

 _"Until the morning?" the younger Himemiya mumbled atop her shoulder. "You won't leave me by myself later in the night? You'll be next to me in bed when I wake?"_

 _"Yes," Shizuka answered. "No. Yes." The sixteen-year-old pulled away slightly to gaze up at her. All negative emotions had departed. What remained was utmost joy shining amidst the trails of tears on her cheeks. "Who would have the heart to abandon such a cute girl like you?" The younger girl turned a shade of scarlet. Shizuka did realize albeit very dimly that such a compliment was not appropriate to pay to her sister... but the angel did not seem to mind._

 _"Sorry I made you cry," Shizuka murmured and leaned in. Her first love gave a mild start when the tip of Shizuka's tongue dipped on her left cheek but immediately went still to let her do whatever she desired. Relishing the rising body heat of the girl nestled in her arms, she spent a considerable amount of time cleaning up her baby sister's tearful residues. Kotoha murmured some incoherent words gratefully when Shizuka erased the trails of moisture on her cheeks. She cooed softly in appreciation when Shizuka sucked at the wells of her eyes. She kissed Shizuka's chin when Shizuka bit playfully on her nose's tip, something she had always liked to do since they were little._

 _"Apology accepted," her sweetheart declared in a soft and uneven voice. She blushed. "Are you... coming inside now, onee-chan?"_

 _"I need to take a bath first," Shizuka said with a smile. "I was all sweaty during practice. I stink." The air conditioner in the Auditorium had been too strong._

 _The sixteen-year-old buried her nose in the crook of Shizuka's neck and took a deep breath. A shiver rippled outwardly from the center of Shizuka's existence and a whimper crawled up her throat. Face suffused with heat, she thanked the Gods that she managed to keep her mouth shut in time and not let out any embarrassing sound afterwards._

 _"You don't smell bad at all," her little sister judged. "No need for a bath. Especially when you are going to take another one in the morning anyway." Guilt was evident in her sweet voice._

 _Amused, Shizuka gently pinched the angel's cheek. "You just want to get in bed with me right away." It was meant to be yet another joke. It too, had sounded differently in her mind. Yet as soon as it left her mouth, the statement became something only suitable to be said to a lover. She grimaced at her unintended flirtatious tone._

 _"I... I do," confessed a mightily embarrassed Kotoha, whose noticeable sincerity added oil to the wildfire spreading across Shizuka's face. "But I meant what I said, too." A short pause. A sharp rise in her temperature. "I rather like how you smell right now." An audible swallow. A deeper breath. Another rise in body heat. "I wouldn't mind going to bed with you like this." She shivered._

She _really_ needs to be mindful of what came out of her lips, _Shizuka thought, dazed. A person who was not aware that Kotoha was honest and innocent to a fault would have sworn that the girl was trying to seduce Shizuka. Not that she minded the idea... or the way the little angel spoke._

 _She cleared her throat. "It is my habit, Kotoha." she pointed out, noting that the shorter girl was holding onto her more tightly than ever. "I have to take a bath to refresh myself, or I cannot sleep."_

 _"Okay," murmured the girl she loved as she untied her arms from around her. "You... will come back here afterwards, right, onee-chan?" she inquired anxiously._

 _"Promise."_ _Shizuka held up her little finger. Her little sister entwined it with her own and shook it gently, her cherry petal lips lit up by a brilliant smile._

 _"Hello there, Shizuka," Himemiya Chikane greeted her in a casual voice the moment she stepped into her own room to get her change of clothes. The thirty-eight-year-old woman, more regal than any living queen, was seated on Shizuka's bed and perusing one of the music journals on her shelves._

 _"Kaa-san," she managed in a strangled voice and closed the door. She did not see her mother walk into her room._

 _"Things went well between you and Kotoha, it seems." Chikane wore a smile too mischievous for Shizuka's own comfort. "Just one reminder, though. You should do that kind of stuff in the room, with the door closed." She winked._

 _"It is not what you think, kaa-san!" Shizuka denied vehemently. "Kotoha was crying and I... I ... was just trying to calm her down!"_

 _"I know." The musician chuckled softly. "I overheard the two of you talking. I was not trying to eavesdrop, you would understand, but neither she nor you were quiet." The chuckle grew into melodious laughter. "I was just passing by your room when I saw you in the hallway. I did not want to disturb your... moment, so I took refuge in your room. I hope you did not mind." Shizuka blushed and shook her head. "So you are going to spend the night in Kotoha's bed? Are you going to be okay?"_

 _"I did not really want to," she muttered. Then she noticed her mother's dubious sidelong glance. "Fine, I do want to. But I would have avoided it if I could. It was just that I felt so sorry for Kotoha. She needed me, kaa-san!"_

 _"She does," Chikane concurred. "She has always needed you. You were too caught up in your own problems to notice that. So you will pay a little more attention to her in the future, will you not?"_

 _"I... will try," Shizuka answered quietly._

 _"Good enough." Her azure-haired mother nodded and rose gracefully from the bed. "In any event," she laid a hand on Shizuka's shoulder, her sapphire eyes gleaming in playfulness, "I would like to remind you that your school is observing a holiday tomorrow. You need not wake up early. Stay in Kotoha's room as long as you want or she permits. Your Himeko-kaa-san and I will not disturb you." Her smile broadened. "Just refrain from staying up all night. It is not very good for your health." In a loud gust of laughter, the world-renowned pianist opened the door and walked out of the room._

 _Sighing in ruefulness, Shizuka fetched clothes from her walk-in wardrobe and headed toward the bathroom across the hallway. Her usually long bath lasted for no more than fifteen minutes today, seeing how she was overwhelmed by the eagerness to see the girl she loved._

 _"Come in," a cheerful voice answered her knock on her little sister's door._

 _Inside, the little angel was lying on one side atop the mattress in her usual pajama. A side of her face propped on a thick but fluffy pillow, she was smiling so broadly her gorgeous face was nearly split into two. She was fully clothed and the room brightly lit, yet somehow Shizuka sensed an atmosphere saturated with love and sensuality. She had watched many romance movies in her life, and in quite a few of them she would see the leading actress wait for her lover in bed in the same way her little sister was now. It neither helped that Kotoha was more attractive than ever with her cheeks aglow with a crimson color and her golden hair spread in a lustrous array atop the mattress._

 _"Come here, onee-chan," the sixteen-year-old invited and patted on the pillow next to the one she was resting her magnificent head upon._

 _Holding her breath in unfolding wonder, Shizuka crossed the room and climbed onto the bed. There, she gently shifted her body until she lay face to face with the one true meaning of her life. Smiling, Kotoha picked up a remote control and pressed on a key. The fluorescent tubes hanging on the ceiling were turned off at the same instant the two bed lamps on either side of the bed lit up. The angel put the device away._

 _Shizuka swallowed in nervousness. She slept in the same bed with the little puppy last night... but she certainly did not recall the air in her room tingling with electricity like this. It was as though... it was as though tonight was the night of their wedding, and she was a groom who had just waltzed into a chamber where her new bride waited._

 _Her heart shot up her throat as her little sister scooted over and put herself an inch away from Shizuka's heated body. The younger girl cupped her face with both hands and smiled._

 _"What took you so long, onee-chan?" she whispered, her voice quiet and soft. Her smooth palms seared into Shizuka's cheeks._

 _"Long?" she repeated, awfully conscious of the small distance separating their lips, of the little angel's fragrant breaths, of the cleavage her low-cut neckline failed to conceal, and of her own pounding heart. "It was only fifteen minutes."_

 _"Really?"_ _The sixteen-year-old giggled. "I tried not to look at the clock, so I couldn't really tell. It did feel like an hour, though." Their foreheads met in a gentle and tentative kiss. "Missed you a lot, onee-chan. Once or twice I wished I had come in the shower with you."_

That would have been disastrous, _Shizuka assessed. She might have passed out as soon as she saw her first love naked in the same bathroom._

 _"Say... onee-chan, what is the relationship between you and Aizawa-senpai?" asked the girl she loved. Kotoha tried to fake casualness, but she failed to hide the anxiety in her voice. She sounded_ jealous _._

 _"She is a friend," Shizuka professed. "She wants to be more. I told her I was not interested."_

 _"I see," Kotoha murmured. It was difficult to_ not _notice her considerably brightening face. Her happy and relieved expression sent a swarm of butterflies violently trouncing Shizuka's stomach. "Have you ever taken a romantic interest without letting me and our parents know?" None but a deaf person would fail to recognize the hopefulness that was the timbre of her tone._

 _She shook her head. "Why do you ask?"_

 _"I'm curious," murmured her first love, hands remaining still on either side of her face. "I've always assumed you'd make a wonderful girlfriend. I just don't know... how much," she whispered in a gradually lowering voice. "Let's say that... I were your lover, hypothetically I mean," she gave Shizuka a shy, rueful look, "how would you treat me, onee-chan?" The forefinger of her right hand affectionately traced the outline of Shizuka's lips._

 _Mesmerized by the amethyst gaze her first love fixed upon her face, she felt compelled to answer the question with the truth. "I would never let you out of my sight," she mouthed her words against her little sister's small fingertip. She wanted to take it beyond her lips, bite playfully on it, and suck at it to her heart's content. "I would do whatever you ask of me. Every morning I would lie in bed and wait for you to wake up just so I could give you a good morning kiss on the lips. I would wrap you carefully in our rumpled beddings and carry you to the bathroom, where I would bathe you with my own hands."_

 _The sixteen-year-old nuzzled her nose against Shizuka's, urging her to continue. Her face was dreamy, her complexion sanguine, her amethyst eyes alight._

 _"I would bring you back to bed and let you wait there while I make breakfast for the two of us," Shizuka whispered. "I would chew on the food carefully and feed you mouth-to-mouth. I would ask you to choose matching clothes for us before I take you out for a date on some weekend, to wherever you wish. I would always hold your bags for you, walk on the road side of the pavement, and keep you safe. I would take you to your favorite restaurant. I would make sure they serve nothing you are allergic to." Words continued to pour out of her mouth as she revealed the forbidden fantasy she often immersed herself in during sleepless nights. "I would take you back home and let you take a nap before I bring you to a concert you like. When we returned in the evening, I would prepare a romantic dinner for us. Afterwards, I would bring you to bed. If you are not too tired, I would make love to you all night long."_

 _"I don't think I have the stamina for that, onee-chan." Her first love hid her face in the crook of her neck. The younger girl's cheeks were burning. "Not unless you let me rest in between. But..." A short pause. A soft gasp. A slight tremor. "What am I saying...?"_

 _There was nothing Shizuka could say in response, so she kept quiet and held her sister tight. The younger Himemiya's body was hot._

 _"At least I'm right," she murmured around the pulse on Shizuka's throat, nearly making Shizuka squirm. "You would make a wonderful girlfriend. Probably... the most wonderful in the world. I envy whoever it is that capture your eyes and your heart in the future, onee-chan. And I will hate that person with all my heart. I... only hope that you'll forgive me for it. I'm sorry, onee-chan."_

 _She failed to come up with a proper response this time either, so she remained silent and idly raked her fingers through her sweetheart's fine golden hair._

 _"I... said some strange things, didn't I?" said her little sister._

 _"It is okay, Kotoha," she assured her. "I do not mind."_

 _"Thanks." The sixteen-year-old burrowed deeper into Shizuka's embrace. "I think we should sleep. Goodnight, onee-chan." She kissed Shizuka's throat again._

 _"Sweet dreams." She pulled up the bed sheet up to their shoulders and closed her eyes._

 _It took her more than a couple of hours of staying still and listening to her heart racing before she could sleep._

* * *

"Why are you dazing out like that, onee-chan?" Kotoha's sweet nightingale voice disrupted her reverie and brought her back to the moment atop the bed, where she found the love of her life, still cuddled tightly in her arms, gazing at her in a manner to loving and doting and adoring to be described with the vocabulary repertoire she possessed. "What are you thinking about?"

"You," she confessed. She could not help wondering how her determination, once so strong it was enough to subdue her constant need to stay by her sister's side, had grown so weak she could not even hold her mouth shut.

Colorful spots blossomed on Kotoha's cheeks as a radiant shine of love and shyness filled her amethyst gems. "Well, better me than someone else," she murmured softly, sounding as though she was not meant to be heard. The tone of her voice as well as the knowledge of last night's conversation convinced Shizuka that her little sister was referring to Aizawa Nanami. It was not as though the sixteen-year-old disliked the pony-tailed class rep, Shizuka was perfectly aware. The girl with the golden-braid simply... did not wish Shizuka to grow too close to the girl who was doing her best to conquer her heart. Whether the other teenager felt jealous or... threatened by the prospect of Aizawa becoming more than just a friend to Shizuka, she did not want to speculate.

Sensing that should she remain in bed with the sunlight of her world, more things she should have kept secret would continue to flow unchecked from her mouth, she gently withdrew her arms from her baby sister's sylphine frame. Stabbed in the gut by guilt at the sad expression that immediately came to dominate the younger Himemiya's countenance, she cleared her throat and sat up on the mattress. Kotoha remained on her side, seemingly unwilling to get up anytime soon.

"Let's... go to the dining room for breakfast, Kotoha," Shizuka suggested, glancing at the clock on the wall. "Our mothers should be expecting us at eight." Her face burned at the prospect of confronting her Chikane-kaa-san. The regal woman knew where Shizuka spent her evening. She was certainly not going to let it slide. After all, the more she loved someone, the harder she made fun of them. It was in her blood.

"Sure," assented the girl with the golden braid, at the moment undone, still giving no sign that she was going to twitch a muscle. Her unblinking gaze made Shizuka very uncomfortable.

"I am going to take a bath first," she announced with a dry throat, attempting to rise to her feet. A soft hand curling around her wrist stopped her in her tracks and slowly pulled at her until she found herself crouching on all four atop the girl she loved, who didn't appear to mind being in such a... compromising position with her blood sister. She only looked... eager and indescribably cute.

"You can't go yet," the sixteen-year-old said quietly, the corners of her mouth twitched into a soft smile. "You haven't given me a good morning kiss. Did you forget it's our morning routine?" Her amethyst eyes glinted.

Shizuka's throat was parched by the seductiveness, which she assumed unintentional, that shone through the younger Himemiya's innocence. The girl was most difficult to refuse when she looked like this.

"We do not have a morning routine," Shizuka reminded her wingless angel.

"Then make one." Kotoha smiled a smile so radiant and gorgeous the sun beyond the glass pane was not all that bright anymore. "For me, onee-chan?" Shizuka thought that the other teenager's tone would not have changed a hair had she employed it to call her lover.

Her willpower fading like mist in the sun, she caved in and bent down to kiss the younger girl on each cheek. They were so hot they transferred the heat to her mouth and warmed it to near melting.

What she did not expect to see while pulling back was playfulness and a touch of disappointment radiating from the sixteen-year-old's visage.

"Cheapskate," the Ototachibana first-year remarked, not unkindly, before she placed a lingering kiss on the fingertips of her right hand and pressed them against Shizuka's lips. Giving Shizuka no time to react, Kotoha lifted her head and placed a second kiss, a hundred times deeper than the first, upon the slim fingers that stood between their mouths. Shizuka was so shocked she still stared down at the love of her life even a full minute later, when the latter had lowered her head back upon the pillow and gazed up at her with an expression that could fell the most hard-hearted man on earth. Her lips burned to the point that she could have sworn her sweetheart had kissed her directly. _Is... is she going to kiss me like that from now on too?_ she wondered in a strange mix of joy and distress.

"Do you want more, onee-chan?" melodiously inquired the sunlit angel, whose electric fingertips tentatively traced the outline of Shizuka's lips. She knew for sure that should she open her mouth and take them in, where she could suck on them to extract the sweetness her sister's lips had placed upon them, but she refrained. Neither did she dare open her mouth and speak, for she did not wish to say _"No"_ but was deathly afraid of what was going to happen should she utter a heart-felt and genuine _"Yes."_

Smiling adoringly at her silence, the young maiden lifted her magnificent head once again to offer Shizuka one last kiss on her forehead before she spoke in a voice cute enough to induce intoxication, "You can go take a bath now. I'm starving, onee-chan. I need food."

When Shizuka closed the door behind her, the sylphine angel one year her junior smiling softly to herself.

* * *

"You're not a toddler anymore, Kotoha," Himemiya Himeko pointed out with a smile on her lips. Clad in a pair of crimson pajama crafted entirely from satin, she was seated on a high-backed chair at the dining table next to her beautiful wife, who was in an identical outfit and sipping at her cup of coffee while scanning the newspapers for interesting headlines. At the other side of the well-polished piece of furniture were their daughters, who were waiting for breakfast to be served by the family's trusted maid. "Stop sucking on your fingers, ne?"

The sixteen-year-old gave a start. "I'm sorry!" Dressed in a casual red tee-shirt and a pair of denim jeans, the golden-haired girl had been spacing out since she arrived at the dining table right after coming out from a bath. Her complexion marred by a perpetual shade of pink, she sat very still on her chair and stared at the shiny surface of the table, occasionally lifting her left hand to her mouth and placing the tip of her middle finger between her delicate lips. It would remain there for a few second before she forcefully lowered her hand onto her lap just to repeat the process shortly afterwards. As far as Himeko could tell, it was an unconscious action.

"We should ask Otoha-san to hurry up," commented the pianist, the corners of her lovely mouth quirked upward into an amused smile. "Kotoha is planning on eating her own hand, I believe." The chuckle she released darkened their youngest daughter's cheeks. "Say, Shizuka," she turned to the girl's elder sister, "did the two of you do something so energy-consuming last night that your sister is this hungry?" _"Playful"_ would be hard-pressed to catch up with the distinctive note in her voice. "A fierce pillow fight?" she added.

The younger of the Himemiya siblings appeared to want to dig a hole on the floor and hide herself in there indefinitely. Her complexion easily matched the color of her shirt.

Dressed in a short-sleeved button shirt dyed in indigo and a pair of white jeans, the seventeen-year-old denied with an intense vehemence, "No, Chikane-kaa-san. We went to bed early." As if finally realizing what she just said, she blushed furiously and fell quiet, not bothering to clarify any further. She did glance sideways, however, and ended up startling her little sister, who had been surreptitiously studying her with a pair of eyes shining brilliantly with an unspoken love that didn't bear the remotest resemblance to that which siblings shared.

 _Now what could the two of them have done in their room last night?_ Himeko resisted the urge to laugh and turned to her faithful companion. Chikane-chan smiled openly at her and gave her a meaningful look. Of course, she suspected that Kotoha had yet to realize the true feelings in her heart. If she did, she would invariably have confessed to her onee-chan and kept the latter in the room for the rest of the day.

It was a much welcome development, nevertheless. Unless Himeko was sorely mistaken, the girl couldn't remain blissfully ignorant of her emotions for much longer. And when she became fully aware, the torment that her precious sister had been suffering for the last four months would be laid to rest.

Himeko pondered if it was too soon to plan a secret engagement party for her beloved children.

"Shizuka?" she called.

"Yes?" the seventeen-year-old answered timidly.

"Do you have any plan for today?" Himeko inquired with a smile. She hoped she managed to keep a straight face. Her mouth was trying to twitch.

"No, Himeko-kaa-san. Why do you ask?" Her eldest daughter sounded puzzled and suspicious at the same time. She guessed some of her hilarity must have shown on her face after all.

"I just want to know if you can be home and take care of your sister," she explained. "I forgot to mention, but we will have to leave soon for an important meeting and won't be able to return until very late in the night."

She intentionally failed to include the fact that the _"meeting"_ she referred to involved only her and her beloved wife. They already booked in advance a suite in the Grand Central Hotel, which happened to be the same one that Chikane-chan had stayed in nineteen years ago when she first came to Mahoroba, and planned to remain in there for the rest of the day. It was fortunate that neither she nor her sweetheart had lost the constant need they had for each other or the fiery passion that no amount of lovemaking could sate. It was going to be a very delightful day.

"But Otoha-san is still here," Shizuka pointed out, her voice breathless. She was trying so hard to _not_ look in Kotoha's direction she could have stared. She knew as well as Himeko that deep down inside, there was nothing she wanted to do more than take custody of her first love. She was only trying to get out of it because she was afraid of losing her determination and self-restraints. "Why do you have to worry?"

"She will not be," announced the genius musician sitting opposite her. "Otoha-san will have a week off to visit a relative. Himeko and I will give her a ride to the Mahoroba airport later."

The princess, too, elected to not mention that it was _she_ who offered Kisaragi Otoha a vacation for every expense of which the family would pay in full. Although the curly-haired woman was very much surprised by the generous and unexpected offer, she readily accepted it and decided it to take advantage of the opportunity to visit an aunt in Tokyo who had fallen sick. Himeko was fairly certain that their trusted maid agreed so quickly partly because she knew what Chikane-chan was up to. In addition to having watched the two children grow up, Otoha was also a woman with a keen sight. It was improbable that she failed to notice what had been going on in this household.

"Ah," Shizuka muttered noncommittally.

"Keep Kotoha safe for us, will you?" The blue-haired woman smiled meaningfully, her unblinking sapphire eyes locked with Shizuka's.

It was then that Himeko noticed her youngest daughter hadn't let out a word of protest. Normally, the golden-haired girl would have raised a good-natured fuss and claimed that she was old enough to take care of herself, therefore requiring none to look over her shoulders. Right now, she remained silent and gazed at her elder sister with a longing look and a gleam of hope in her amethyst eyes, evidently urging her precious onee-chan to heed her mother's request.

 _She's rather dense in this area, isn't she?_ Himeko noted in great ruefulness. _Just like me, I guess._ _Another girl would have realized that she was madly in love a long time ago._

"I will," her eldest daughter promised and immediately became speechless at the grateful smile dawning on her sister's lips. Resignation and reluctance immediately departed from her face. She seemed dangerous close to melting into a puddle atop her seat. Himeko was sure the girl would too, maybe as soon as the sixteen-year-old touched _any_ place on her body.

"I'll be counting on you then, Shizuka." Himeko said with another smile. "And yes," she added as if an afterthought, "I have something to give you." Her eldest daughter forcefully tore her undisguised loving gaze away from her first love and fixed it on Himeko. "I'm sure you both know that tonight is the premiere of another movie for which Chikane-chan composed the music score."

"Oh, right!" Kotoha gushed in pure excitement, temporarily taking her longing eyes off of her onee-chan. "I want to see it." Her amethyst gaze immediately swiveled back to Shizuka's face. There, it softened, it grew affectionate, and it became something that could have found nowhere except on a lovesick soul. It was such a pity that the target of such a loving gaze was so deeply immersed in self-denial that her eyes refused to register that which was pretty much obvious.

"That's a very good idea," Himeko remarked, almost unable to keep the triumphant note out of her voice. "The local IMAX Theater," there was but one of these ridiculously expensive theaters in the modest metropolis that was Mahoroba, "already sent us a few VIP tickets to the premiere." She cleared her throat delicately. A few indeed. "Why don't you take a couple of them and go see it?"

Shizuka cracked under the pressure exerted upon her by her sister's intent amethyst eyes.

"That sounds great, Himeko-kaa-san," she said and gently stroked Kotoha's head. The younger Himemiya beamed joyously in response, appearing to be refraining from throwing her arms around the older and maybe kissing her for all she was worth.

Kisaragi Otoha came into the dining room, holding in her hands each a tray full of scrumptious foods. The breakfast began and ended in laughter, the warmest and liveliest they had ever had since four months ago, when Shizuka began distancing herself from the girl she loved.

It was a good sign. It was already time for her eldest daughter's torments to stop.

* * *

"Shall we go back to my room, onee-chan?" Himemiya Kotoha suggested hopefully. Standing at the door with her beautiful princeling by her side, she had just seen her parents take the silver Mercedes out of their huge five-car garage and wave to her one last time before they drove off with Kisaragi Otoha in the back seat. They weren't going to come back until late in the evening, they said. That meant that only she and her seventeen-year-old sister would remain in this vast house, free to do whatever they wanted without fear of interruption. Innocent it might have sounded in hermind, the thought did stoke a fierce fire on her cheeks.

"Your room...?" Shizuka stared at her.

"Yes, my room," she affirmed, amused at the sanguine shade of the older girl's complexion and the uneasy manner with which she uttered these words. "I'd like to sleep in a bit later today." She gazed up at the lovely being standing in front of her. "Come back to bed with me?" she implored, dimly aware of the fact that the way she phrased it, unconsciously at the very least, wasn't appropriate when speaking to a girl of the same flesh and blood. The thought swiftly waltzed out of her mind.

"Well," a scarlet-faced Shizuka cleared her throat, "I am not sleepy at all so..."

"At least stay with me until I've fallen asleep?" Kotoha insisted. "I'd like to talk to you for a little while, too. Please, onee-chan?"

"Okay," the seventeen-year-old relented.

Kotoha beamed brightly and gratefully at her sister, thinking to herself that it seemed to be getting more and more difficult for Shizuka to say _"No"_ to her. Normally she would have tried to dissuade Kotoha of whatever she did not want to do and eventually given up after quite a few unsuccessful attempts. Now she conceded as soon as Kotoha gave her a pleading puppy look. Things sure had changed between them. As far as she was concerned, they changed for the better. She enjoyed being pampered by her sister. She reveled in the seventeen-year-old's affectionate attention. She loved having this statuesque princeling spoil her like she once did.

Smiling in contentment, she headed back inside, trailed behind by the breathtaking beauty one year her senior. As she slipped out of her sandals at the door, she turned her head and caught in her sight a Shizuka torn between joy and apprehension. Her slightly fearful yet blissful face couldn't have been any more adorable. The way the girl chewed on her underlip in uncertainty, a side of her rarely seen by even the people inhabiting this house, was cute beyond words. Kotoha knew for sure that continuing to watch would eventually get her drunk.

Smiling more broadly now, she waited for her precious sister to fall in next to her and walked side by side with the latter under the spacious hallway leading to the living room. A fond piece of memories, which was buried in the dark recesses of her mind during the last four months, surfaced a few steps later and warmed her blood.

Giving the seventeen-year-old a playful look that couldn't escape her keen eyes, she strode ahead and formed a small gap about three or four steps between them, one she maintained until comprehension dawned on her sister's alluring countenance and increased her pace. As soon as the older girl caught up, Kotoha put a distance twice as long as the last, glanced over her shoulder again in playfulness, and offered her beloved onee-chan a grin both roguish and encouraging. Taking the clue now, the elder Himemiya hurried forward and ended up chasing after Kotoha as she sped her way through the large living room and then into the second hallway. She laughed as hard as she ever did.

Kotoha knew the outcome was already decided the moment the race began. A person determined to not exercise unless having a gun pointed at her temple had could not expect to run faster than a girl who strived to keep herself in shape by swimming a few laps every day. That was why she wasn't trying her best to outrace her beloved sister. That was why the latter managed to reach her through a quick stride the moment she got inside her room and pulled her into a tight, warm, and inescapable hug, eliciting from her a loud and playful yelp devoid of any sign of pain or discomfort. Struggling for air now, she giggled aloud with beads of sweat running down her face and enjoyed the gentle pressure being exerted on her back.

She fell quiet, however, as her beautiful onee-chan reached for her hands, threaded their fingers together, and folded them on her flat stomach. She sensed her body temperature take an upward hike as the seventeen-year-old fastened her arms and pulled her even closer. She thought her blood was congealing into honey as a pair of firm, ample, and perky breasts pressed on her back. She blushed as her onee-chan's most personal place, jeans-clad as it was, met her behind in a lingering kiss. She feared she was going mad with pleasures as the tip of Shizuka's nose lovingly parted the array of golden hair and exposed the nape of her neck. She nearly squirmed and whimpered when the elder Himemiya's breaths caressed her bare skin, when the former's lips grazed it affectionately, and when her teeth nipped at it with enough force to cause physical pleasure instead of pain.

The large room was quiet except for Kotoha's ragged intakes of air and her sister's calm and deep breathing, the atmosphere simmering with cascading heat. Since Shizuka graced this private chamber with her presence yesterday evening, it had become a paradise. So long as her onee-chan stayed here, it was going to remain one.

"Caught you, Ko-chan," the seventeen-year-old declared in a voice so soft if it grew any softer, it would be inaudible. She sounded so sweet, so adorable, so playful, and so much like the old Shizuka she knew from childhood that the cool-faced and distant Shizuka she had been acquainted with during the last four months could have been a different person. She wished to know what could have induced that change.

"So you remembered our little game, koneko-chan," she whispered bashfully in response.

"How could I not?" her sister whispered back. "We loved chasing each other around the house when we were kids. It used to be much more difficult to catch you, Ko-chan." Melodious chuckles echoed in the electric air. "You were not trying."

"I wasn't," she confirmed in a happy voice. "Who in their right mind would want to get away from a beautiful girl like you, onee-chan?"

A sharp indrawn breath. A long pause. A moment of uncomfortable silence.

Slowly turning around, Kotoha captured in her vision a dazed Shizuka who seemed to have just snapped back from a daydream. Her complexion was a trifle gray, her sapphire eyes troubled. She had the look of someone scolding herself in quietness. Kotoha didn't doubt for a second that her sweet sister never thought it through before doing what she did. Or maybe she never had the time to.

"I... I am sorry," stammered the elder Himemiya as she tried to untangle from Kotoha.

She didn't let her. Putting her arms around her precious sister's neck, she clung to her. Realizing that she refused to let go, the beautiful seventeen-year-old sighed in resignation and remained still with arms encircling Kotoha's waist.

Overwhelmed by surge after surge of violent emotions in her heart and rendered lightheaded by the closeness between her body and that of her gorgeous sister, a heavenly frame of curves and softness, she decided she wanted to be closer. Her teeth rounded on the edge of Shizuka's collar and tried to undo the button without resorting to her hands. Amidst the surprised yet ambrosial gasps drawn endlessly from the taller girl's ravishingly kissable mouth, she tried again and again without much success. Annoyed by the collar's resistance, she bit on the button and yanked it off.

Enraptured by the smooth snowy skin beneath the fabric, she buried her face in the crook of Shizuka's neck and nuzzled it with the tip of her nose. She planted gentle yet lingering kisses on Shizuka's skin. She closed her mouth around the pulse on Shizuka's throat and suckled it, relishing the mermaid's increasingly quick heartbeats and enjoying the whimpers she had elicited from the girl she cherished. Only dimly did she realize that she was crossing a line she shouldn't... but she soon forgot the inconvenient little detail when her welling pleasures pulled it down and drowned it at the lowest layer of her consciousness.

"What's the point of chasing after me and catching me if you let me go so easily?" she mouthed her words around the succulent throbbing pulse. "Don't you want to get your reward?"

"What... kind of reward?" Shizuka's voice was husky and breathless. It fanned the flames roaring at the pit of Kotoha's stomach and scorched her face. She felt weak. Gods, but the seventeen-year-old could seduce any girl she wanted without even trying.

"Bring me to bed," she swallowed audibly, "and I'll tell you, ne?"

"Okay." The elder Himemiya slipped an arm beneath Kotoha's calves, gently scooped her into her arms, and crossed the room. In front of the king-sized bed the fully clothed Venus stood for a few moments with indecision warring with determination on her lovely face. To Kotoha's delight, the fair enchantress turned and sat down at the edge of the bed, allowing Kotoha to sit on her lap, lean a side on her heaving front, and lay a side of her head on her left shoulder. The seventeen-year-old's hand was laced on the hollow of Kotoha's waist, her countenance stained by guilt and relish. Relish more than guilt.

"So... what is the reward for catching you?" she whispered atop Kotoha's head.

"I'll be your girlfriend for a day," she answered, blushing at the deep and pretty cleavage she saw through the gap at the neck of her sister's button shirt. She'd love to take the clothing article off. She'd be more than pleased to undo the clasp of her onee-chan's bra and slide it down her body. She'd be thrilled to admire those beautiful breasts again. "You'll get to keep me all to yourself until tomorrow morning." She blushed harder at what her words, all innocently intended, seemed to imply the moment they jumped off her lips. "What do you think?"

"My... girlfriend?" her onee-chan repeated breathlessly, apparently shocked. "But... but..."

Amused by her sweetheart's stammering, Kotoha smiled. "You don't want me, koneko-chan?" Her smile deepened at the panic crisscrossing Shizuka's countenance. She looked like she didn't want to say _"No"_ but was refraining from saying _"Yes."_ "Is it because I'm not cute enough?" she pressed teasingly.

"No!" Shizuka gushed. "That is not true! You will always be the cutest girl in my eyes, Kotoha!"

"I wish you'd say that kind of things more often and without me asking you," she whispered and blushed hotly. "Don't you remember how you always heaped praises on me whenever we were in bed?" It was strange how the word, untainted as it was in her mind, always rang with a sound she didn't intend as soon as it was voiced by her lips. Seized by a mild vertigo all of a sudden, she hid her burning face in the crook of the elder Himemiya's neck.

"I... am sorry," Shizuka mumbled.

"Anyway," Kotoha smiled around the pulse on the seventeen-year-old's throat, making her squirm slightly, "you... still don't want me to be yours for a day?"

"I do," the older girl whispered back almost reverently. "Gods know I do. But... but why?"

"Because I like what you said last night, onee-chan." Kotoha slipped her arms around her sister's back and hugged her tight. "I really want to know how it would feel to have you for a girlfriend for a day." Something in the recesses of her mind reminded her Shizuka also mentioned a few things that she would never have a chance to experience due to their bond of blood. She didn't really care. At the moment, she only wished to learn how it would feel to be treated as a lover by this kind, beautiful, and gentle girl. "Can I?" Her hands gripped the smooth fabric on her onee-chan's back. "You said you did want me to, right?"

A second pause, this one twice as long as the first, came and went in heavy silence. What arrived on its heels was an almost imperceptible nod of head. "If you do not mind," murmured her sweet Shizuka in what she was sure to be hesitance, "it will be okay with me, too." She kissed Kotoha on the tip of her nose and bit it gently. She thought her existence was unraveling in cresting joy.

"You sounded so reluctant, onee-chan," she said, her voice breathless. "Why can't you see this as practice for your future girlfriend?" She seriously doubted she could come up with a more reviling thought.

"How do you know that I will take a _girl_ for a romantic interest?" her elder sister inquired, slightly amused. "For all I know, I can have a boyfriend like you do, too." It might have been her imagination, but she thought she just heard bitterness ringing in those words.

Kotoha blushed. "I can't imagine you with a guy, onee-chan," she professed honestly.

"I see." Shizuka chuckled. "Well then, be a good girl and take a nap, ne? When you wake, I will take you out on a date."

"A date?" she repeated wonderingly. The word tasted so sweet.

"Yes, a date," her gorgeous sister confirmed. "We are going to drive to Downtown and spend our time there before we come to the theater in the evening. What say you?"

"It sounds great." She grinned at her princely onee-chan.

The elder Himemiya gave her a smile and rose to her feet. Afterwards, she turned around and laid Kotoha on her back upon the mattress. Finally, the blue-haired girl settled down on one side next to her, slipped an arm beneath her head, and pulled her into an intimate embrace.

"Sleep well, my cute little girlfriend," teased the moonlight of her world. She nearly passed out from the overpowering happiness brought to her by such a simple phrase. "I will stay here with you."

"Do I get a goodnight kiss?" she requested.

"You mean afternoon," corrected her beautiful mermaid with a smile. "But okay." She leaned in and grazed Kotoha's forehead with her moist and warm lips.

She blushed hotly. "Not there," she whispered in blossoming embarrassment. She tapped a finger on her lips. "I'm your girlfriend," the word trounced her stomach like a swarm of rabid butterflies, "for today at least. Shouldn't I get special treatment?"

Shizuka stared at her with a scarlet complexion for a few heartbeats. "Okay." She swallowed hard and nodded almost fervently. Amazed at how acquiescent her sister had become, Kotoha watched in silence as the other teenager slowly, almost seductively, lifted her right hand to her delicate mouth and blessed her fingertips with a kiss so long and deep and passionate it made Kotoha wish it was her fingertips that were receiving her sister's affectionate attention. All thoughts fled from her mind however, the instance Shizuka pressed those very same fingers upon her lips. Delighted by the fact that the moonlight of her world was offering her an indirect kiss in the same way she did earlier this morning, she closed her eyes and took the tip of a digit into her mouth, where she kissed it and sucked on it gently, hoping to extract the sweetness of the other Himemiya's lips.

"Sleep well and wake, Kotoha," whispered Shizuka, who squeezed her tightly and trembled. Even her voice was shaking. "Do not make me wait for too long."

Every particle of her body invaded by the body heat of her new girlfriend, Kotoha surrendered her consciousness and drifted into the land of sensual dreams.

* * *

"You mean to tell me you've known it all along, mom, dad?" Oogami Mikoto demanded. Seated with his parents at the dining table, he felt as though the warm afternoon air he inhaled with every breath was becoming explosives that were wired all over his lungs. Every strand of his long dark hair rang in anger and threatened to stand up on his head. Even his impeccable composure seemed to want to crack.

"Not all along," Souma clarified, his hand scratching his head. The thirty-eight-year-old bank supervisor was dressed in his three-piece business suit today, ready to go his workplace in Downtown and assume his second shift. "Himemiya Chikane and Himeko sat down with us a couple of days following their return to Mahoroba and well... told us a few things about their oldest kid." He grimaced.

"And what do you think about that?" Mikoto muttered.

"We understand their concerns, son," said Oogami Makoto, whose chin was propped atop a pair of interlaced hands. Even though she kept complaining that she didn't look as youthful as either Chikane or Himeko, she still seemed young enough to be mistaken for a woman in her late twenties, not a housewife who had a teenaged son. "We," she hesitated, "also think that their request is very reasonable."

"Request?" He blinked. "What did they want you to do?"

"They just asked us for our understanding, Mikoto," answered his dad, who seemed to be sitting on hot coals. He and his faithful companion, despite their discomfort and reluctance to explain this touchy issue to him, seemed to be taking this much better than he did.

"For what?" he demanded. A bile rose in his throat.

"Well," the older man cleared his throat loudly, "they said they'd do their best to bring happiness back to Shizuka and," he coughed, "help her win Kotoha's love. They hoped the three of us would forgive them for... trying to take Kotoha away from you."

 _A fine job they're doing then,_ he thought in irritation. _I know they openly support Shizuka... but I didn't think they would go as far as telling my parents that. They must be quite confident they're going to succeed._ The thought infuriated him even further.

"And you agreed?" he muttered and continued at a nod from either of his parents, "I'm surprised that you didn't raise a fuss over this." He was being neither sarcastic nor berating them for what they had done. It was simply a statement of fact. He wasn't big on sarcasm anyway. It served no purpose as far as he was concerned.

"Well," Souma scratched the back of his head again, "we were very surprised. A bit angry, too," he glanced at his wife, who sighed and nodded, "but when we put ourselves in their shoes, we realized that it was the... right thing to do as parents. Chikane and Himeko only wanted their daughter to be happy. We... can't fault them for that now can we?" The bank supervisor sounded as though he was asking for forgiveness himself.

"Shizuka is a very fortunate girl to have such devoting mothers," assessed Makoto. "I don't think I can do the same as they..." She sighed.

"But you shouldn't worry, Mikoto," said his dad. "The fact that they're trying doesn't mean that they'll succeed. Kotoha's your girlfriend. I'm sure you know how to protect your relationship."

"You shouldn't be," he muttered and rose from his chair. "I'm going back to my room to study."

Ignoring Souma and Makoto, who had to be shocked by his response, he headed out of the kitchen and climbed the stair to the second floor. He wanted to go out and vent his irritation somewhere... but he was afraid he was going to violate his promise should he ever run into the Himemiya siblings on the street. He despised himself for being a man of his words. Gods, he would hate to learn what Shizuka and Kotoha were doing at the moment... or last night.

* * *

 _Friday, June 26th, 1:29 PM._

* * *

"Can we go inside, onee-chan?" Himemiya Kotoha gestured at the Seiei Fashion Center, an impressive store with gilded signs and swinging doors crafted entirely from glass situated at the intersection of Fifteenth and Fourth Streets in Downtown. Their car, a two-seat sports BMW that usually spent its time inside the garage at home, was parked a few feet behind them at a meter requiring five thousand yens to keep quiet for the next twenty-four hours. Having acquired a license even before Mikoto did at sixteen years old, Kotoha's sister had driven her all the way to Downtown with a grace comparable to that of Chi-kaa-chan herself. _Maybe I should ask her to teach me how to drive,_ she mused. A scaredy-cat to her bones, she had always been afraid of the sheer volume of traffic she encountered everyday to school and the amount of accidents they caused on a daily basis. That was partly why she hadn't gotten her license yet.

"Your wardrobe is not big enough for you, Kotoha?" The older girl blinked at her. "I thought our mothers brought you a great deal of clothes when they returned from Europe."

"Who says I'm going to buy anything?" She pouted playfully, making her sweet princeling blush. "I only want to try out the new clothes they have. Don't you get that urge sometimes, onee-chan?"

"I cannot say that I have," Shizuka confessed.

"You're odd." Kotoha giggled behind a raised hand, her multitude of golden strands stirring in a gust of warm air blowing southward. Her onee-chan stared at her, appreciation and awe prominent in her sapphire eyes. She made Kotoha very conscious... but she really liked to have the seventeen-year-old's full attention on her like this. She felt special when the elder Himemiya admired her every change of facial expression. She felt loved when she realized that the tall girl reveled in the slightest shift of her mood.

"So, can we go in?" she implored and twined her arms with the girl she cherished, who reddened to a sunset upon having her skin come into contact with Kotoha's chest. She refrained from smiling and teasing her sister for that. Heaven standing witness, Shizuka was acting like a lovestruck girl going out on a date with her crush. The thought warmed Kotoha's heart.

"Okay," the blue-haired girl assented and let herself be drawn along into the two-story building.

"Welcome, misses," greeted a finely dressed woman. Her nametag identified her as the manager Kawasumi Noriko. "Welcome to the Seiei Fashion Center." She inclined her head. She had a pretty baby face that radiated such an air of youth it was impossible for Kotoha to put an age to her. She looked no older than Kotoha's parents, for goodness's sake.

"Hello," Shizuka greeted the manager in the same courtesy and with an incline of her magnificent that was no lower. Kotoha followed suit but with a much deeper bow.

"How may I be of service today?" inquired Kawasumi.

"My," she paused and glanced at her sweetheart, sensing her cheeks heating up at the words she was about to say, "girlfriend and I would like to look around, ma'am." Shizuka lowered her gaze to the tiled floor and blushed. She never looked happier.

"Shall I accompany you, misses?" offered the youthful woman, who showed no sign of approval or disapproval. "Should you require it, I can inform you all about the new arrivals. We carry apparels from the most famous designers in the world."

"Um," Kotoha hesitated, "we'll be fine, I think." The last thing she wanted was to have someone tail her and disturb her blessed moments with the girl she cherished.

"As you wish." The manager inclined her head again. "The fitting rooms are near the stairs to the second floor if you need them. Please enjoy your stay." She turned around to greet the next customers who just entered her store.

Leaving the woman, Kotoha and her beloved onee-chan took a thorough tour of the first floor of the building and feasted their eyes on the latest designs from famous name brands like Calvin Klein and Gucci and Versace. Shizuka was mostly quiet, only offering opinions upon being asked for and allowing Kotoha to drag her everywhere with nary a word of protest. Nevertheless, Kotoha could tell that the older girl, whose arm she held onto as tightly as a dying patient would cling to her life support system, enjoyed Kotoha's company very much. A joyous smile always adorned her elegant lips, a blissful gleam lighting her sapphire eyes. Kotoha had never seen her sister this happy during the last four months.

"You should try those clothes on first," Shizuka advised, eyeing half a dozen dresses that were draped over Kotoha's vacant arm. They were rather heavy.

"Sure, onee-chan." She beamed at the elder Himemiya and walked with her toward the fitting rooms, at the door of one of which her sister froze dead on her tracks. Kotoha blinked at her in curiosity.

"You go in alone, Kotoha," suggested the blue-haired beauty, who was wearing a rosy complexion on her face. Kotoha decided that her gorgeous sister had blushed during the last few days twice as many times as she did during her lifetime. "I will wait out here." She gently retrieved her arm from Kotoha's loving grip, denying Kotoha the joy that had been dominating her heart since she woke in the morning. She panicked.

She suddenly understood the reason to the shyness infesting her beloved onee-chan's face.

Blushing slightly, she lowered her eyes to the floor and took a step closer to her sweetheart and leaned her front on the latter, her vacant arm snaking around the former's slim waist. She could listen very clearly to Shizuka's rapid and uneven breathing. She could hear her onee-chan's heart pounding like thunder beneath her ample chest. She could taste the warmth radiating from beneath the short-sleeved shirt and smell a fragrant scent rising from every inch of the seventeen-year-old's curvaceous frame. She felt like she was back in time to earlier this afternoon, when she lay in bed with her precious Shizuka. _Since when did onee-chan start acting so strangely around me?_ she thought fondly. _Not like her at all._

"It's okay if you don't want to come in," she murmured softly, noticing a deep sigh of relief from her sweetheart. "But can do you me a favor?"

"What is it?" inquired Shizuka, sounding apprehensive all of a sudden. Maybe she thought Kotoha was going to ask her to do something even more... difficult than being in the same fitting room and seeing her in nothing but her skin.

"Will you fetch me some lingerie from the store?" Kotoha said, feeling heat rising in her cheeks. "I'd like to try them on too."

"You should go and look at them yourself, Kotoha," murmured the girl she cherished. "I do not know what you like or dislike."

"But _I_ want to know what _you_ like me to wear, onee-chan," she announced in a bashful voice.

"Why?" Her sister stared at her, deeply confused and embarrassed.

"Because we're going to share a bed from now on, aren't we?" Kotoha lowered her amethyst eyes to the carpeted floor and began tugging at her precious sister's sleeve. "I... don't want to sleep without you next to me any longer, onee-chan." She paused and stole a furtive glance at the genteel princeling, whose reddened face showed no sign of protest. "Summer is getting hotter too. I can't wear my pajama anymore." Leaving the air conditioner on all night was bad for her health, so she'd prefer not to. "Don't you want me to put on something _you_ like to bed, onee-chan?" That came out more flirtatious and seductive than she had intended.

"I do," her one-day lover admitted after a moment of silence. "I really do."

"Then go," Kotoha urged. "But don't stay out for too long, ne? I'd miss you very much."

Shizuka nodded weakly and left. She looked a little lost, confused, and overly happy.

Feeling a sense of loss from the absence of the azure-haired Himemiya, Kotoha went inside the fitting room and locked the door behind her. The first thing she saw once she had hung the dresses she had brought along on the walls was a very tall mirror that contained her image in its entirety. She couldn't help but smile the moment her eyes dawned on the small nose of her reflection. _For one who acts so shy in front of me, she sure likes to do embarrassing things when she thinks I'm asleep,_ she mused. _Now that's just like her._

* * *

 _Friday, June 26th, 2:30 PM._

* * *

 _Even though Himemiya Kotoha had already awoken, she remained very still on one side and in the arms of her elder sister. Shizuka was so warm and so cuddly the last thing Kotoha wanted to do at the moment was to announce to the other girl that she was already awake. She knew for certainty that the moonlight of her world would simply withdraw her arms and do her best to avoid giving Kotoha the lightest touch. She would rather stay in this intimate and loving embrace with her eyes closed while listening to the quiet heartbeat of the girl one year her senior, absorbing her deliciously tangible warmth, and breathing in the fragrant natural scent rising from her gorgeous body. Besides, it was also Shizuka's fault that she'd want to pretend to be asleep. The azure-haired mermaid didn't really help when she stroked the small of Kotoha's back in the same manner that she used to during Kotoha's sleepless nights, when she would ever so often deposit a soft kiss on Kotoha's forehead that made her crave for more, and when she seemed to have no intention of withdrawing her sweet, sweet fingertip from between Kotoha's lips. She only wished Shizuka would do the same things when they went to bed every night._

 _A melodious tune rang into life in the cool air, announcing that somebody was trying to reach the seventeen-year-old through her cell phone. Eyes still closed, Kotoha felt her sister give a small start before the latter gently withdrew her arm from beneath Kotoha's head and climbed off the bed. Terribly angry toward whoever just disturbed her blissful moment, she peeked out from beneath lidded eyes just in time to see Shizuka hurry outside her room to answer the call._

 _"Aizawa?" the azure-haired girl's voice echoed back inside._

 _Kotoha's stomach lurched in unease and discomfort. The pony-tailed class representative's name always invoked that effect. She... simply couldn't understand why._

 _"Sorry, I doubt I can go to the movies with you," said Shizuka. "I... I already promised to take Kotoha out later this afternoon." A long moment of silence. "You want to tag along? Um... Kotoha is not going to sit well with the idea for sure, so that is out of the question. I am really sorry to say this, but I think Kotoha is not too fond of you... No! What does she have to be jealous about?"_

 _Kotoha sensed heat blooming on her cheeks. What Aizawa Nanami told her classmate wasn't too far from the truth. Deep down, she knew she wanted Shizuka all for herself. Even the thought of sharing Shizuka with anybody outside the family was reviling._

 _"I am going to hang up, Aizawa," Shizuka muttered. "Kotoha will be very unhappy if she wakes and does not find me next to her so..." A pause. "Not true!" the older Himemiya exclaimed. "I have not said her name for the hundredth time! No, I am not going to do that kind of thing to her! Wait a minute, Aizawa! What are you going to say to Mikoto?"_

 _There was another pause before the door opened again and admitted a Himemiya Shizuka who was definitely disturbed by Aizawa's threat. Hurriedly, Kotoha closed her eyes and quietly listened to her sister's soft footfall on the carpeted floor. The mattress trembled slightly as Shizuka climbed back onto the bed and lay down next to Kotoha once more._

 _Except that she never slipped her arms under Kotoha's head again. On the bed she lay very still, breathing noticeably more heavily than before she took the phone call._

 _"Kotoha?" the moonlight of her world called softly, then did it one more time when she received no response. A sharp intake of air._

 _Kotoha's face burned like a furnace the instant she smelled her sibling's intoxicatingly fragrant breaths and sensed them caressing her skin, informing her that her sister's face and her very own were no more than a few inches apart. Cheeks afire, she tried to keep herself still while wondering what her beautiful mermaid was trying to do with her while she was still "asleep."_

 _A few moments passed in silence and stillness, during which Kotoha's heart was caught in a tug-of-war game between excitement and disappointment, before something happened that made her very glad she had pretended to be sleeping._

 _Shizuka kissed the tip of Kotoha's nose. It was very light at first... but gradually grew less so with every second that passed. Before she knew what was going on, the azure-haired Himemiya was sucking gently on her nose, offering increasingly arousing touches with a pair of lips so soft, moist, and loving they continuously injected wine into Kotoha's vein. Her heart wanted to slam a path out of her chest. Her arms wanted to wrap around the slim waist of her sister and held the girl tight. Her head wanted to raise so that it could press her lips against that her princely sister. She wanted to kiss Shizuka so terribly it was driving her insane._

 _Unfortunately for her, Shizuka gave a start and climbed off the bed. Immediately afterwards, she hurried out of the room._

 _Eyes fluttering open, Kotoha sat up straight on the bed, still able to hear her heart pound away her. Her breaths were quick and uneven, her blood simmering in her veins. She touched her cheeks with her hands. They were on fire._

 _She would be lying if she said she didn't like what her beloved sibling did. She would be making an understatement if she said she liked it so much she couldn't wait to experience it again._

 _Walking out of her room, she caught the Ototachibana second-year in the bathroom across the hallway. The water from the faucet was still running. Face moist and lips trembling, Shizuka herself was staring into the mirror above the sink._

 _Looking at Shizuka's countenance, Kotoha couldn't tell whether the former was happy or upset._

* * *

 _She did something similar a while back, didn't she?_ Kotoha chuckled. _How cute!_

Lips still curved by a smile, she shed her clothes, idly hoping that no secret camera was installed in this fitting room. By the time the final piece of undergarment was slipped off her body, she heard a soft knock on the door. Face enveloped in heat for reasons she failed to comprehend, she felt her breath caught.

"Kotoha?" called the other Himemiya, whose dulcet and timid voice conjured in Kotoha's mind the image of a cute and shy adolescent instead of the strong-willed and somewhat aloof elder sister she had grown up with.

"Yes?" she answered and unlocked the door.

A slender arm slipped past the gap, showing Kotoha several sets of underclothes draped across its length. "Here you go," said Shizuka, who refused to step inside.

Blushing even harder now, Kotoha curled the fingers of her right hand around that of the girl she cherished. The seventeen-year-old stiffened at the contact and attempted to take back what was now caught in Kotoha's firm but loving grip. The older Himemiya gave up once she realized that her younger sister was not going to let go. Shizuka's hand was growing hotter and hotter by the minute.

Slowly but steadily, Kotoha pulled at that very hand, so soft and slim and pretty, until its owner's entire body was engulfed by the rectangular space inside the fitting room.

The azure-haired mermaid stared at her, unlinking. Open wonder and admiration were shining in Shizuka's sapphire eyes. The color of a glorious sunset glowed on her cheeks. Averse to the idea she might be, she clearly enjoyed the view of Kotoha naked. She could tell that the statuesque beauty in front of her now surely wouldn't mind looking at her for another few moments. Pride, tinted by a touch of her innate shyness and embarrassment, sang endlessly in her blood.

"Would you like to help me put them on, onee-chan?" she inquired jokingly.

The startled expression that rippled across the Ototachibana second-year's visually stunning face made Kotoha laugh.

* * *

 _Friday, June 26th, 8:15 PM._

* * *

"Let's go in, Kotoha." Himemiya Shizuka eyed her wristwatch. "It is almost time." She was seated on one of the benches surrounding a gushing fountain right outside of the local IMAX Theater. Over her head spanned a boundless starlit sky dominated by a full moon undaunted by the light pollution that Mahoroba was projecting heavenwards. Around her was a vast sea of people milling everywhere, most waiting in line to buy tickets at the box office, some killing their time with food and conversations while waiting to be admitted to their designated theaters, and a few stealing surreptitious looks in Shizuka's way. Perhaps they were wondering what kind of relationship shared between Shizuka and the girl who was resting her head on Shizuka's lap and lying supine along the length of the bench.

"We have fifteen more minutes, don't we?" the girl she loved murmured with her eyes closed and her delicate hands folded atop her tee-shirt-clad abdomen. "We don't need to hurry, onee-chan." She mouthed her words lovingly around the tip of the forefinger of Shizuka's right hand, which sometimes she kissed, sometimes she sucked at gently and almost absently, sometimes she bit on playfully, and sometimes she kept very still in her mouth and caressed with her tongue as though enjoying its taste.

Shizuka had a feeling she had opened Pandora's Box earlier this afternoon, when she offered her little sister an indirect kiss in the same fashion as that which she received in the morning but ended up unable to retrieve her forefinger from the other girl's mouth until she had fallen asleep.

Shizuka knew the younger girl was unknowingly making a scene out of her unusually affectionate behaviors. Deathly conscious of the stares the bystanders were tossing her way when they thought she did not notice, Shizuka many times would ponder withdrawing her right hand and depriving the beautiful angel of something she seemed to like to sample very much. She never succeeded. The moistness inside Kotoha's mouth, the softness of her lips, and the smoothness of her tongue were giving her forefinger, and in turn herself, so much pleasure that it would take a will much stronger than hers to retrieve the digit. Besides, the little puppy's face was so blissful while she adored Shizuka's fingertip with her tongue and lips and teeth that even the thought of disturbing her enjoyment was a most heinous crime.

"Okay," she assented weakly.

And so she remained seated on the bench while her other hand stroked her first love's magnificent head and often switched to brushing the shiny tresses of the halo of golden hair spreading across her lap. She enjoyed it very much when her sweet and adorable Kotoha mouthed the word _"Onee-chan"_ around her fingertip with a voice hot enough to set water on fire. She liked it very much when her little sister let out appreciative coos that should only be heard atop the bed of a pair of lovers. She loved it very much when the love of her life sometimes would roll onto one side and rub a side of her face against the fabric of her jeans, sending a rush of pleasure into the sensitive region beneath.

Her sapphire eyes wandered her sister's pristine form. The skin on her face and her neck shone like snow under the dim light of the lamp posts. Her full bosom was falling and rising in a rhythm that could mesmerize any man. Since the girl had her bra back on now, all Shizuka perceived were the beautiful curves of her chest, but her memories registered something far more sensual. She remembered the carmine rosebuds that she had seen crowning these wonderfully round orbs of flesh. She could recall how stiff they had been when she first laid eyes on them, how mouthwatering they had appeared, and how much they seemed to be inviting her lips. She would have killed to be able to tease their wonderful stiffness with the tip of her tongue. She would have paid any price to be able to take either of these succulent rosebuds into her mouth and keep them there for as long as she could.

Her sapphire gaze traveled further downward and stopped at the region where the two leg panels of her little sister's jeans were joined. Heat flared fiercely on her cheeks as she tried to push out of her head the image of the precious blossom nestled tightly between Kotoha's long and lithesome thighs.

"Onee-chan?" called the girl she loved, who had opened her shiny amethyst eyes and gazing up at her adoringly. To Shizuka's deepest regret, her sweet sister had already released her finger from her mouth. The clear layer coating the tip of the digit seemed to be catching the light of the lamp posts and glowing with it. "You've been dazing out since the morning. What were you thinking about this time?" the golden-haired girl asked softly.

"Something trivial," Shizuka replied, hoping that she could maintain a straight face.

"Ah," murmured her first love, who settled her gaze on Shizuka's wet fingertip for a brief moment and gently lifted up Shizuka's hand. Before she saw what was coming, the very same digit had been slipped into her own mouth. All thoughts taking flight, she found herself sucking on it almost greedily and enjoying the taste of the substance beyond her one-day girlfriend's lips. It tasted sweet and reminiscent of the green tea ice cream they had eaten in but an hour gone.

"You're so adorable when you blush, onee-chan," opined the beauty she cherished. "I should try to make you do it more often." She giggled at that.

Shizuka could not come up with anything in response, so she kept quiet and continued to brush her little sister's silken hair. She could tell that the younger Himemiya liked it a great deal the way she sighed in contentment and issued soft coos from her delicate mouth. It took Shizuka a fair amount of self-control to not bend down and claim the golden-haired girl's lips.

Honestly, she did not think Kotoha would mind.

"Ne, onee-chan?" The light of her world reached her dainty hand upward and tugged playfully at the long and narrow tail that was her hair.

"Yes?" she answered.

"You haven't told me which of the lingerie I bought you'd want me to wear to bed tonight." The younger girl flushed slightly at her own suggestive voice. Shizuka thought her face was going to explode.

Although her baby sister had claimed in the beginning that she only wished to try on the clothes in the Seiei Fashion Center, she ended up purchasing a fair amount of stuff – all lingerie, extremely revealing ones at that! – before she reluctantly agreed to go back to the car. They were lying in a paper bag in the BMW's right now, and the very memories of what her little sister had put on her voluptuous frame in the fitting room threatened to reduce Shizuka to ash. Gods above, if Kotoha looked beautiful in any type of clothes – she was just that kind of person – the teenager was beyond glamorous in underwear designed specifically to augment the charms of a female's curves. Even the thought of resisting the sixteen-year-old was difficult.

"Onee-chan?" the golden-haired angel pressed.

"I... I think you should stick to your pajama," Shizuka demurred in a weak voice. "They... are very becoming on you." Truth be told, she did not believe her willpower stood any chance of surviving a night in bed with Kotoha should the latter insist on putting on _any_ of the lingerie she bought.

Her first love giggled underneath a raised hand. "You're not honest at all," she pointed out, her smooth cheeks enveloped by a scarlet glow that stood out even under the dim light of the lamp posts. She laid a finger across Shizuka's lips. "Lying is bad, onee-chan. I can tell you'd love to have me put on that camisole." Her expression grew shy and affectionate at the same time.

 _How the heck did she know?!_ Shizuka thought in distress.

In the bagful of clothes Kotoha had purchased at Seiei was an outfit with a sensuality not many other type of lingerie could top. It contained a thin snowy camisole made of silk and cropped well above the midriff. Since it was equipped with no underwire bra and possessed a nearly translucent fabric, it allowed any who shared the same bed with the sixteen-year-old to see the heavenly contours of her well-formed breasts, the distinct shapes of the delicious rosebuds tipping her chest, the alluringly even field of her belly, the cute depression that was her navel, and the smooth bikini lines that traveled toward her most personal part. Since the bottom half of the sleepwear set was a pair of panties, also of the same pristine color and crafted from silk and no thicker than the camisole in fabric, tied together at her hips with loose strings, it did not do much to hide the mouthwatering outline of the Venus mound nested snugly between trim thighs. A gale would have ripped the piece of underwear off and revealed the delectable treasure beneath its flimsy weaves to Shizuka's sapphire eyes.

Kotoha was simply stunning when she put the camisole and the side-tie panties on her perfect body. The seductiveness of the sleepwear set somehow managed to fuse with her innate innocence and produced an exquisite and unique beauty Shizuka was sure nothing could surpass. For the few seconds after the near-translucent camisole and its accompanying pair of silk panties had graced her little sister's elegant frame, Shizuka had stood very still where she was while gazing in amazement and deepest desires at the wonder filling her vision, wishing with all her heart that she could come into her room every night and find the sixteen-year-old waiting in bed in the same outfit.

"I guessed it right, didn't I?" asked the sunlight of her world, chortling in pure satisfaction.

"Yes," Shizuka admitted, sensing her cheeks warming up further. "How did you do that?"

"I was looking at you the whole time, onee-chan," the younger Himemiya confessed shyly. "It'd be very difficult for me to miss how much you liked watching me in that camisole. You don't hide your emotions half as well as Mii-chan, you know." She chuckled more loudly and brushed Shizuka's lips with the tip of her finger. Shizuka was suddenly overwhelmed by an urge to close her mouth around the digit and suck on it was all it was worth. "You were so cute!"

"Thanks, I guess?" She swallowed audibly.

Her little sister sat up straight on the bench and gingerly climbed onto Shizuka's lap. Sitting quite comfortably atop Shizuka's thighs with a side of her body pressed against Shizuka's heaving front and a side of her head resting on Shizuka's shoulder, the sixteen-year-old quietly took Shizuka's right hand into both of hers and pressed its palm upon her burning cheek. Even though the golden-haired beauty was drawing startled glances and envious looks from the people milling about the large square in front of the IMAX theater, Shizuka quickly shoved their intrusive presences out of her mind and surrendered herself to the soft feel of the curvaceous body within her grasp. Gods, but who could have thought that it would feel so nice to have her most significant other sitting in her embrace like this?

"So, do you want me to wear it tonight, onee-chan?" whispered her first love.

She nodded before she knew she did.

"It'll cost you, onee-chan." The younger Himemiya absently played with the collar of Shizuka's short-sleeved shirt, a button from which she had yanked out with her teeth herself.

"What is your price?" Shizuka asked.

The girl of her dreams was clearly enlivened by how she was addressed, for she put her gorgeous face an inch in front of Shizuka's own and smiled a smile that could steal any other girl's heart. Then she closed her amethyst eyes, raised her cute little chin, and slightly opened her lips. There was no ambiguity as to what Shizuka's baby sister, cheeks aglow in a rosy radiance, desired in exchange for fulfilling her wish.

"But... but..." she stammered and looked around nervously, "there are so many people here..."

Kotoha laughed softly. "So..." she whispered, "you can't because of them, not because you don't want to, onee-chan?" Her amethyst eyes seemed to glow with joy and love.

Shizuka closed her mouth with an audible click. Her tongue froze.

"But you're right," conceded the younger Himemiya. "I'll collect my fee at home later, ne?" The golden-haired angel quietly climbed off of Shizuka and offered her a pretty delicate hand. Her soft rosy lips were graced with a shy yet joyous smile. "Let's go in."

Dazzled, she took her sweetheart's hand and rose to her feet. Their fingers remained threaded on their way in, their gentle grip unbroken during their momentary stop at one of the numerous refreshment counters in the lobby to purchase a large carton full of popcorn, the soul-soothing meeting of their palms uninterrupted even after they had arrived at their designated seats in the VIP screening room of the local IMAX Theater.

Unlike a normal screening chamber, this one was three fourth smaller and having about the same proportion of seating. Each seat was actually a fully cushioned chair twice as wide as a regular one and four times as comfortable to sit on. Stretched along the vertical side of the armrests was an array of buttons that managed a wide range of functions including but not limited to adjusting the inclination of the high back, control the softness of the air cushions, raise of lower the height of the seat, or activate the silent massage feature of the chair itself.

The light in this chamber was dim, the multidimensional speaker system cleverly concealed in the high and artistically decorated walls, and every row of seats on every level of the floor completely deserted. It was strange. She knew for a fact that any movie for which her mother composed the soundtracks often did so well at the box office that the theaters were packed for months following the premiering day. This degree of startling emptiness was unheard of.

Not that Kotoha, who was standing next to Shizuka in front of the chairs, minded the detail. On contrary, she seemed quite gladdened by the fact that not a soul was present in this dimly lit chamber. Her smile, which blossomed on her full and pretty lips at the bench outside, had become so radiant it could have been a midday sun unto itself. Her amethyst eyes were sparkling with unspoken wonder, her gorgeous face basking in an ebullient glow.

"You look so happy," Shizuka observed, mildly curious.

"Why shouldn't I?" Her little anger turned to her and smiled more broadly. "I'm a little bit guilty toward Chi-kaa-chan for thinking this... but this is more than what I hoped for."

"What was it that you hoped for?" she asked quietly, sensing that the originally low temperature of this deserted room had gone up a notch.

"I wanted to watch the movie with you alone, onee-chan," her first love whispered in a shy voice.

"Why?" Shizuka's throat had gone dry from the burning love that burned at the pit of her stomach and soared all the way up to the roof of her mouth. "It is... more fun when there are more people."

"I know." The little puppy gave her a rueful look. "But don't you remember how they always looked at me funny when the lights went out?" Kotoha withdrew her hand from Shizuka's grip, incurring in her a devastating sense of loss, and then laid both of hers on Shizuka's shoulders. Wordlessly she applied a gentle pressure on Shizuka and did not stop until she had sat down on the humongous chair. In the end, the sunlight of her world squeezed into the same chair and nested her warm and curvaceous body cozily in the curves of Shizuka's arms. On her side now with one arm draped across Shizuka's abdomen, the girl of her dreams placed her mouth right next to Shizuka's ear and whispered in a voice that ignited a firestorm in her throat, "I'm not very comfortable with them watching me instead of the movie."

Despite hearing her brain sizzle in the body heat of the golden-haired beauty in her embrace, Shizuka immediately understood. Her little sister's severe scotophobia never let her be even in a theater's screening room where blackness mostly reigned. The only way the girl could sit down and enjoy her movie was to ease herself into the same seat with Shizuka and have Shizuka's arms as tight as possible around her buoyant frame. The sight never failed to draw from the other movie goers a great deal of curious glances.

"It's starting," murmured the younger Himemiya as she shifted onto her back, took the carton of popcorn from Shizuka's vacant arm, and placed it atop her own lap.

The light bulbs hanging on the side walls dimmed and eventually went out, plunging the chamber into darkness. Trying to ignore the soft feel of her first love's body, the nude form of which was still deeply imprinted in her mind, Shizuka fixed her eyes on the bright sphere of white light that had appeared out of nowhere in front of them and stretched into a thick shaft of light, ultimately widening into a three-dimensional holographic screen that was at the cutting edge of the movie industry.

Then it began.

* * *

"The movie must have started already, don't you think?" whispered Himemiya Himeko, who was sitting in a mostly deserted VIP section with her beloved wife, Himemiya Chikane. Atop their table, round and only large enough for two, stood a gilded stand that held three brightly lit candles and a tall bottle of champagne some of the content of which now resided in a pair of stemless glasses. She and her regal companion had taken a few sips each while waiting for the waiters to bring out what they had ordered. The bistro in Grand Central didn't even make it to the Fine Culinary Art magazine's Top Ten list of restaurants, which Ichihana Diner often dominated, but she and Chikane-chan didn't care. They only intended to replenish the stamina they had consumed in bed earlier without venturing too far away from Grand Central, in a presidential suite of which they planned on spending the rest of the night in each other's arms.

The princess of the Himemiya glanced at her wrist watch. "It should have," she agreed. Agelessly beautiful, she was even more so with the rosy tint that the champagne had brought to her cheeks. "They should be in the theater by now." She propped her delicate chin on her interlaced hands and continued to gaze intently at Himeko, the former's eyes filled with appreciation and love. Even though the azure-haired musician had spent quite an extensive amount of time admiring Himeko's sweaty nude form in bed earlier, she gave no sign that her sapphire eyes had drank in enough.

"It's a good thing that the producers decided to keep the true content of the movie a secret," Himeko murmured into her champagne glass, feeling more than eager to come back to the suite with her wife. Despite having devoted the better part of the day embarking on spiritually and physically satisfying journeys in bed with her sweetheart, she still desired more. "Else, this plan of ours would never work," she continued, trying to not think of what joy was awaiting her atop the mattress once they had returned to the sanctuary of their Mahoroba-overlooking chamber.

The other woman nodded in agreement. The summary and the trailers released to the public had been vague and deceptive. None who walked inside the theaters would realize the truth before it was too late. She could very well imagine the terrible firestorm that was going to be unleashed came the next morning, when the film critics and the newspapers vented their self-righteous anger and tried to choke the movie to death. And yet, there was still a glint of hope in her that those with little more than an ounce of sense and humanity would understand the message the movie meant to convey and not get lost in their own feelings of blinded intolerance.

"It's understandable," murmured the moonlight of her heart, who tapped a forefinger absently on the rim of her glass. "After all, the public would never purchase a ticket should they learn what the movie is really about. This actually prevents them from harboring a prejudiced mindset when they take their seats in the screening room. They will never know what hit them." She chuckled at that.

"How do you think our children will react?" Himeko inquired.

The azure-haired princess smiled. "I think the better question to ask is what they are going to do once the movie is over." Her smile grew into a soft laugh that rang like crystal chimes in the air. "I would assume that they would have a lot to tell each other. I am glad I made sure no one would have a chance to bother them." Chikane-chan had guaranteed that no other soul but theirs occupied the seats by purchasing all the tickets to the VIP room. It cost them a considerable sum of money, but it was well worth it

"A toast then," Himeko smiled at her sweetheart and raised her half-full glass, "to a job well-done on our part." _If the Gods are willing, Shizuka's torments shall end tonight._


	5. The Prince and I

**_CHAPTER FIVE: THE PRINCE AND I._**

* * *

Himemiya Shizuka was roused almost violently from her sleep as a loud song thundered into her ears. Eyes fluttering open and adjusting themselves to the bright light bulbs along the side walls, lit back into life since only the Gods knew when, she found herself on her back and staring straight ahead at the credit roll of a movie a fraction of a fraction of which she had watched. The warmth of her sister, the emotional rollercoaster she had been subjected to ever since Kotoha gave her that devastating indirect kiss in the morning, and the physical fatigue had caught up to her at the same time and pulled her into the ocean of the dark.

Berating herself harshly for falling asleep right from the beginning of a movie her mother had helped produce, she turned her head and caught in her still foggy vision a silent Himemiya Kotoha who was lying on a side with her head rested on Shizuka's arms and amethyst gaze fixed on Shizuka's visage. From the sixteen-year-old's red and swollen eyes round and large teardrops continued to emerge. Down her full cheeks they rolled, drawing new trails of moisture as they erased old ones. Even though only the Gods of Heaven knew how hard or for how long the little angel had been crying in silence, Shizuka sensed her heart clench at the sight.

"Was the movie that sad, Kotoha?" she whispered to the girl she loved as she rolled onto one side and pulled the latter into a tight, warm hug. There was nothing she wanted to do more at this moment than to comfort her sister even if her moment of weakness was chipping at her sanity. Her entire frame tingling with electricity generated from the intimate contact between her and the wonderful softness caught in the curves of her arms, she stroked the small of her sweetheart's back. Her very own body heat seemed to be growing as it fed the younger girl's, tangible warmth that seeped past her clothes and seared into her flesh.

"Only some parts," replied her sibling in a ragged voice. "It has a very happy ending. I really liked it." She stirred, burrowed more deeply into Shizuka's embrace, and rubbed her angelic face on Shizuka's chest. "I wish you had seen everything with me," she murmured in her nightingale voice. Although the younger Himemiya was warm like a blazing hearth, she shivered as though standing naked in the middle of winter.

"I am sorry, Kotoha," she apologized. "I was tired. Why did you not wake me?"

"I didn't know you were sleeping until more than halfway through," the little puppy answered. "It was too late then, so I didn't want to disturb you. But don't be sorry, ne. We can go see it again when you have time. I'm sure you'll love it." There was a strange note in her voice Shizuka did not recognize.

"Okay." She combed her fingers through the near-incandescent tresses of the younger girl, who lifted her head and gazed with utmost devotion into Shizuka's eyes. Held captive by her first love's amethyst gaze, which consumed souls as easily as giving them life, she stayed very still on her side and allowed the sunlight of her world to caress her face with a pair of shiny and moist gemstones that harbored as much love for her as the open sea would water.

Shizuka could not understand why or how, yet she knew the way her sister looked at her changed a little bit more every time their eyes met.

"I love you," whispered the sixteen-year-old. Her tone was affectionate beyond words.

Shizuka's heart skipped a beat.

"Why all of a sudden?" she inquired, hoping her first love would not notice the breathlessness and bitterness in her voice. She had heard that simple phrase countless of times in her dreams, issued in many different intonations, yet she had no idea how much it hurt her in reality, where she knew that the golden-haired beauty meant it in an entirely sisterly sense.

"That's not what you're supposed to say in response." Kotoha pouted. She was irresistibly cute when she did that. Had Shizuka's self-restraint been but a little bit weaker, she would be crouching on all four on top of the younger Himemiya at this very moment and kissing her for all she was worth.

"I am sorry." Shizuka swallowed hard.

"Not that either." Kotoha made a face. A look of consternation she might be trying for, yet all that was on her face was the playful expression of a girl who was intent on teasing a sister she loved very much. "Do I have to spell it out for you, onee-chan?" Her words were crystal chimes, clear and musical, her eyes brilliant stars of the night sky.

"I love you too," Shizuka professed, feeling her throat grow dry at the glorious smile that lit up her little sister's already stunning visage. Mind void of thoughts, she stared at the Ototachibana first-year until the latter flushed darkly in obvious embarrassment and hid her burning face in the crook of Shizuka's neck. The sight pumped undiluted alcohol into Shizuka's blood. _Gods, how could she be so cute_?

They stayed very still for the next several minutes, during which Shizuka tried her very best to not move yet still mysteriously found herself either combing her fingers through the younger girl's lustrous hair or stroking the small of her back, until Kotoha spoke up again and blessed Shizuka's ears with her delicious voice, "Onee-chan?"

"Yes?" she answered.

"Have I... ever called you by your name?"

Thoughts stopped revolving in her head. Her heart went still. "No," she replied quietly.

"Can I... try?" requested the girl she loved in a no louder but much more caressing voice.

"Sure." Shizuka swallowed hard, only dimly wondering to herself why her baby sister was acting in such a strange way.

A moment of silence passed them by until the golden-haired beauty snuggled comfortably in her tight embrace issued a quiet _"Shizuka-chan"_ from her lips. Shizuka's heart made an audibly loud thump in her chest at the same time that a squeal crawled its way up her throat, tried to pry itself out of her mouth, but ended up being swallowed down instead. The air she breathed in was cool, but upon being released, they scorched the insides of her nostrils. Her face, which she was sure to be crimson at the moment, would have done a fuming volcano proud. She had never imagined she could grow so overjoyed just because her sweet sister addressed her by her given name.

"Do you... like that?" queried the sunlight of her world.

Her nod was quick and fervent.

"Is it okay if I... do the same from now on?" Kotoha continued, her voice half a request and half a plea. "When... we're in private at least?"

A quicker and more fervent nod.

"Shizuka-chan?" called the Ototachibana first-year. Her warm and fragrant breaths seared into the skin on Shizuka's throat.

"Yes?" she answered, thinking that she could do this all night.

"Nothing. I... just wanted to call your name." The little angel gave a crystalline chuckle. "Yours is so cute. I can't really help it, Shizuka-chan." The other Himemiya seemed to be tasting and savoring the words on her tongue. The caress in her tone turned Shizuka's heart into a hammer that refused to stop pounding in her chest.

Intoxicated and at an absolute loss for words, she confined herself to hugging the sixteen-year-old tightly and tried not to listen to a voice that was raving at the back of her head and urging her to confess her darkest secrets to the sylph held captive most willingly in the curves of her arms.

Another moment of silence.

"Why did you have to wake up so soon?" Kotoha chided playfully.

"What... do you mean?" Shizuka asked, tingling from the electricity in the air she breathed.

"Had you slept a little longer, I..." she paused for a few seconds as though choosing her words, "I would have had an excuse to wake the sleeping beauty with a kiss. I wouldn't have had to worry that you'd resist me either." She laughed quietly at that.

"You're more suitable for the role of a princess than a prince, Kotoha," Shizuka told the girl a year her junior.

"Don't you think a prince would love to be wakened by her princess that way sometimes too?" countered her first love, who idly played with the shirt buttons directly below that which she had ripped off in the afternoon before she undid a couple of them in a much less destructive manner. Even though Shizuka was shocked, she could only watch her normally timid sister pull apart the placket of her shirt, exposing a considerable part of her cleavage as well as her lacy strapless bra.

"You've been acting like a prince to me for so long I can't see you in a different way, Shizuka-chan," the younger and significantly more adorable Himemiya continued in the same voice as she shifted her petite body downward. She did not stopped until her countenance was next to Shizuka's heaving chest. The little puppy then shocked Shizuka to the base of her foundation by leaning in and placed a hot kiss on the portion of her left breast that was not covered by her bra. Suddenly subjected to a terrible assault on the sense of touch right on one of her more sensitive places, she groaned inwardly in a mix of fear and pleasure, pleasure overcoming fear, at the moistness and warmth of her sister's lips.

Finding herself riding on another rollercoaster, she watched in stunned silence as the girl of her dreams quietly scraped her teeth, pearly and even, on the skin on Shizuka's chest, paused all of a sudden, and finally extended her tongue from her beautiful mouth to lick gently on the same spot the way she would her favorite bar of ice cream. Feeling strangely ticklish and incredibly aroused by the sight of her beloved angel touching one of the most sensitive regions on her body with a small and delicate tongue, she brushed Kotoha's lustrous hair and decided that she wished to know what was going on in the girl's pretty head.

"I am not your lollipop," she whispered, very much appreciating the wet frictions between the moist tip of that cute and pliant tongue and the bare skin of her chest. "What are you thinking?" She raked her fingers through the younger Himemiya's golden hair.

Her little sister chortled in amusement and gave the orb of firmness a final kiss, long and loving, before she lifted her face and gazed up at Shizuka, her amethyst gems locked with Shizuka's sapphire in a connection that seared the small space in between. "I was thinking that I should give you a permanent scar where I just kissed you," she professed in a dead serious tone, "but I didn't have the heart to do it. I couldn't bring myself to hurt you."

"A scar?" Shizuka's eyes widened. "What for?"

"Ah, well..." the sylphine angel's face reddened to a sunset, "you see, there's a similar scene in the movie. There was this... girl who was very afraid that her elder sister was going to like somebody else more than she liked her, so she bit the... older girl on her forearm and left a small scar so that her sister wouldn't forget about her..." She got so flustered toward the end that she hid her burning face in Shizuka's half-clothed bosom, causing a tremor to ripple across her body and raising her temperature up a few notch.

Dazed and not quite sure as to what she was doing, she gently pulled away from her little angel and slipped a forearm between the girl and her own chest.

"No! I don't want to bite _that!"_ Kotoha's melodious laughter chimed in the air.

"Why my... chest then?" Shizuka mumbled, her mind and body numb from the love and sensuality saturating the confined space of the VIP screening room. She could swear that she was floating amidst a sea of cloud rather than strapped by gravity onto this cushioned chair with the sunlight of her world.

"Because," whispered her first love, "I think the closer I leave the scar to your heart, the less likely that you'll be able to forget me." She blushed hotly. "Childish, aren't I?" She buttoned up Shizuka's shirt.

"Well," she cleared her throat, not quite able to believe that she was having a conversation that bordered on pillow talk itself with her sweetheart, "if you're willing to receive the same scar... maybe I will let you..." Her tongue nearly curled up in horror as soon as she heard what it was that she just said.

Kotoha stared up at her wordlessly for a moment before she nodded in her usual timid manner and whispered, "If you promise me that you wouldn't make it hurt too much, Shizuka-chan..." Her voice was so low Shizuka had had to strain her ears to listen to the words ushered out from her little sister's lips in such a musical rhythm. "I'll let you bite me anytime, my beautiful vampire."

Caught off guard by the response, which sounded nothing like what a girl should say to someone tied to her by the bond of blood, Shizuka stared unblinkingly at the beautiful sixteen-year-old, who smiled back in her innate shyness and confined herself to admiring Shizuka's countenance again with her glorious amethyst eyes.

The sounds of people chatting and laughing echoed out from the dimly lit hallway leading into the screening room and reached Shizuka's ears.

"Let's go home." Kotoha rose from the chair and offered Shizuka a delicate hand to help pull her to her feet.

"But it is still early," observed Shizuka. "Do you not want to go anywhere else?"

Her precious sister gave her magnificent head a slight shake. "I'm a bit exhausted," she admitted. "I'd rather spend the rest of the night in bed with you." She slipped her arms around one of Shizuka's own and hugged it tightly. "And I can't wait to put on that camisole for you to see, too..."

The perfect melody that those words had rung into continued to haunt Shizuka the entire ride home, during which she was only allowed to use her right hand to control the steering wheel because her gorgeous passenger had taken her left and held it tightly in both of hers atop her lap. Had it not been for the automatic shift and the emergency break separating their seats, she was sure her little sister would have clung to her entire arm and made driving a hundred times more pleasurable and difficult.

"We're home," the sixteen-year-old announced to no one in particular when she stepped inside the empty house. Afterwards, she slipped off her sneakers and waited for Shizuka to do the same in the hallway while hugging the Seiei paper bag to her chest like she would a treasure.

"Feels rather different with no one home, does it not?" Shizuka murmured and fell in next to the girl she loved. To her surprise, the little angel stood firmly on the wooden floor and refused to move. Shizuka eyed her quizzically, feeling a little unnerved by these intent amethyst eyes.

"If I said I was too tired to walk, would my beautiful prince carry me?" she murmured with her head tilted cutely to one side and an even cuter smile curving her delicate lips. The rosy glow on her cheeks only added to her irresistible quality.

"She would." The answer jumped off Shizuka's tongue.

The little puppy said nothing. She smiled expectantly at Shizuka and waited.

Intoxicated by the affection the girl of her dreams had been showering her all day long, she stepped closer, put one arm around the golden-haired beauty's back and another beneath her calves, and scooped her up. Releasing a yelp that could have been the most elegant piece of music to Shizuka's ears, the younger Himemiya rested a side of her gorgeous face on Shizuka's shoulder and held on more tightly to the Seiei paper bag.

Time squeezed by like a bullet even though Shizuka did everything in her power to prolong the walk to Kotoha's bedroom. Partly it was because she wished to relish every step she took with the world's most precious and perfect being cradled in her arms. Partly it was because she feared what might happen in bed. Her self-control was already at its limit. If it had to bend any further, it would snap like dried twigs. There would be no going back then.

"Take some rest, Kotoha," she told the girl she loved once she had laid her on the bed. She fell down onto her knees on the carpeted floor and folded her arms on the mattress. On one of them she rested a side of her face and silently studied the pristine form of the wingless angel.

"Maybe later." Her little sister gave her a sweet smile and dotingly stroked her head. "I'll need to warm the food in the fridge for us first. I'm hungry. Aren't you?"

Shizuka gave a nod.

"Then why don't you go take a bath?" suggested the svelte angel. "Dinner will be ready when you get out." Her smile turned mischievous. "But don't take too long, or I'll come in and drag you out myself."

"Then I better lock the door," Shizuka said, drawing from her first love a mirthful laughter.

She actually put the door bolt into place.

Lounging in the warm water of the rectangular bathtub, she fondly recalled the events that had transpired since the moment she woke in the morning. She blushed at the memories of sharing an indirect kiss with the girl she loved. She thought the water was boiling upon recalling Kotoha's naked magnificence in the Seiei fitting room. She thought her blood was simmering in her vein at the sight of the golden-haired Himemiya's gorgeous center, a precious rose snuggled tightly at the juncture of a pair of arousingly slender legs. She had wanted to sink to her knees and place a kiss on that beautiful maidenhood and tasted its silkiness and sweetness. The memories sizzled across her brain.

Fearful for her sanity, she got out of the tub, dried herself with a fluffy towel, put on her blue night gown, and left for the dining room. The sight that caught her eyes there made her skip a step and pumped blood onto her face.

Before, Himemiya Kotoha never wore anything aside from a pair of pajama during her evenings. Now, the rule had been broken. Now, the girl was sitting at the dining table in a long-sleeved white button-shirt that only covered as low as a few inches beneath the juncture of her thighs, showing off a pair of legs long, smooth, and shapely enough to rouse the deepest desires of any man or woman who looked. The small and sensual swells tipping the curves of her chest told Shizuka that her adorable angel wore nothing beneath the shirt. The knowledge drained moisture from her throat and made her try her hardest to not speculate whether there was any piece of lingerie gracing the other adolescent's precious place.

"Sit down, Shizuka-chan." Kotoha beamed brightly at her and patted almost excitedly on the chair next to hers. "Hurry, the food is still hot."

Under a sudden urge to pinch her own cheek, Shizuka settled down on a chair next to her sister's.

On the table, polished until it shone like a mirror, sat two wooden trays lacquered in black with identical content. On either sat a small bowl of rice, another of miso soup with tofu, a dish of neatly sliced and masterfully cooked tonkatsu, another dish of tempura, a pair of vermillion-colored chopsticks, and a ceramic spoon. Anybody who knew Himeko well would recognize her signature in the dishes she prepared. They were rarely fancy in nature. They were almost always simple things pleasant surprises hiding beneath their ordinary appearances. And there had never been any instance in which they did not taste good.

The youngest member of the Himemiya picked up her chopsticks and smiled at Shizuka, signaling her to follow suit. Offering the sunlight of her world a smile in response, she started the meal with a quiet _"Itadakimasu"_ before she enjoyed the great taste of Himemiya Himeko's carefully prepared food.

Not too long afterwards did she realize that her sister was more interested in watching her eat than filling her own stomach. Blushing hotly under the intent gaze of her first love, Shizuka grew increasingly flustered and awkward with the chopsticks in her hand, not quite sure as to what she should do with them.

"What's wrong?" The little puppy chuckled. "Do you want me to feed you, koneko-chan?"

"Um..." Shizuka mulled over the thought. Before she knew it, her head had already given a nod.

"Say _'ah',_ lazy Shizuka-chan."

It was only after that did the sunlight of her world touched and ate her own food. Once in a while, she would pick up a piece of tonkatsu or tempura and raised it to Shizuka's mouth, urging Shizuka to eat with a facial expression no one would have the heart to refuse. Every so often, the sixteen-year-old would take a spoonful of soup, blew on it gently to relieve some of the heat, tasted a little bit with her own mouth to make sure it was not too hot, and fed it to Shizuka. When that happened, she never failed to close her lips around the same spot on the spoon that her sister had touched with hers. Shizuka was unsure whether the other girl noticed, but the girl always smiled when Shizuka drank down every drop of soup. Meanwhile, she mused to herself that perhaps her mothers, the happily married Chikane and Himeko, did the same thing every meal when they were living by themselves and prior to giving birth to her.

Once they had finished, her precious princess brought the trays down to the kitchen, washed them, and returned with a dish of neatly and evenly sliced mikan that had spent the whole day cooling in the fridge. To Shizuka's pleasant surprise and mild embarrassment, Kotoha once again assumed the role of a dutiful wife by peeling the skin off every slice of mikan and feeding it to her in the most affectionate manner. The Ototachibana first-year's fingertips always traced Shizuka's lips afterwards. The angel's own were always graced with a fond smile.

The dishful of mikan slices, each of which must have contained a considerable amount of liquor, were consumed faster than Shizuka had imagined. Once the empty dish had been put away, the golden-haired girl then leaned her left side against Shizuka's right and wrapped her arms around one of Shizuka's. She could feel the younger girl's breasts beneath the thin fabric of her button-shirt. They were so soft. She grew dizzy just from looking down and seeing the pretty and deep valley separating these twinned orbs of snowy roundness.

"I'd love to go to bed with you right away," Kotoha confided, sounding like a girl who happened to be exchanging pillow talks with the one she loved, "but I doubt you'd appreciate cuddling me when I smell like food." She glanced up at Shizuka and laughed softly. "Besides, I'm afraid you'd treat me as your meal and do weird things to me when _you're_ asleep. You can't control yourself when you're unconscious."

Shizuka cleared her throat and forbore from voicing the thought running wild in her mind.

"I'd like to take a shower now, Shizuka-chan," her sweetheart announced and gazed up at her expectantly.

It took her a moment to realize what her sister wanted her to do. Face aflame, she rose from the chair and headed toward the bathroom, carrying the other Himemiya along in her arms.

Somewhere along the way, she sometimes caught her sapphire eyes dawning on the depression at the lowest point of the gorgeous angel's torso and her mind spinning into the gutter and her face growing hot enough for a burning hearth. Kotoha must have noticed it too, for halfway toward their destination, she suddenly tapped a slim forefinger on Shizuka's lips and asked in such an innocent fashion no juror would hesitate to declare her guilty as charged, "Do you remember that we once played the _'Guess the color of my panties'_ game, Shizuka-chan?"

She stifled a strangled sound in her throat. _"Not_ 'we,' _Kotoha,"_ she groaned inwardly. _"It was_ you _making_ me _guess because_ you _were drunk from grandfather's brandy tea."_

"Do you," the sunlight of her world hesitated, "want to guess now?" A smile crossed her lips.

Shizuka gave an answer identical to the first one that she did when they were at their grandfather's house. She made her sister laugh.

"No, it's blue," confided the sixteen-year-old, her right hand pulling up the hem of her shirt a little to show the color of the lingerie beneath. Shizuka did not dare glance at the piece of cloth for long, not when her adolescent mind still retained the memories of how delicious the rose blossom hiding beneath had appeared. "I think it's the only one of its color that I have," continued Kotoha. "Mine are mostly red."

"Why did you choose it then?" Shizuka asked curiously.

"Because that's the color _you_ like, no?" professed the younger girl, whose hand idly played with Shizuka's azure hair and whose amethyst eyes were downcast. Spots of crimson bloomed on her cheeks.

Silence haunted the rest of the walk. Once they had arrived at the door to the bathroom. Shizuka gently put the other girl down, her mind still buzzing with unasked questions.

"Do you... want to join me and take another shower?" Kotoha gave Shizuka's long and tidy flow of azure hair a playful tug. "I'll wash your back." It was impossible to discern whether she was serious.

"Um... no thanks," muttered Shizuka, unable to see anything in her vision except the image of her precious Kotoha without a stitch on her body, all curves and softness, even though she knew the button-shirt showed nothing apart from her lithesome thighs.

"Then..." the sixteen-year-old took a step forward, slipped her arms around Shizuka's neck, rose on her toes, and placed a lingering kiss on each of Shizuka's cheeks, "why don't you go to bed and wait for me?" The younger girl stepped back as she lowered her amethyst eyes to the floor and murmured in a far softer voice, "You're welcome to join me anytime you want though, Shizuka-chan."

She was still standing in front of the bathroom, stroking her cheeks with her hands, and staring at the door even after the girl she loved had stepped inside. Moments had passed before she recalled that she had not heard the sound of the door bolt being locked it to place. It was only then did she realize that her hand was itching to reach for the door knob and turn it just so she could come in and again behold the magnificent wonder that was her sister in nothing but her fair skin. She clenched her fists and kept them at her sides, listening to her breathing picking up its pace and her face burning at the sounds of what she assumed to be hot water sprays stroking naked curves.

She was about to leave when a painfully audible _"thud"_ reached her ears at the same time that an equally loud and painful yelp did. All thoughts and precautions fled her mind as worries and fear took over. She spun on her heels, nearly knocked down the door, and hurried inside.

Steam was everywhere in the smoothly tiled and spacious bathroom. The big showerhead was still spilling forth wide-reaching sprays of hot water, most landing on a gloriously nude Kotoha who was on her back on the floor. Shizuka's heart was wrenched by unspeakable agony the moment she caught sight of the pain contorting her sister's visage.

"Kotoha!" Shizuka cried and rushed toward her beloved sister's side, uncaring toward the water slickening the surface of the floor and soaking into her nightgown and hair as she arrived within the firing range of the showerhead. "Are you okay?"

"You're so sloppy, Shizuka-chan," said the little angel, wincing as she spoke. "You should've put the soap back on the tray. I stepped on it..." No hint of displeasure was in her voice. Only resignation.

"I am so sorry!" Shizuka apologized from the bottom of her heart as she wrapped her first love in a towel nearby, scooped the younger Himemiya into her arms, and carried the girl out of the bathroom.

Once they were back in Kotoha's private chamber, Shizuka sat down on the bed and had her sister sit on her lap and lean a side of her towel-clad frame on Shizuka's front. She didn't have a chance to react when the sixteen-year-old shifted gently so that she now sat with her own front pressed against Shizuka's and her slim legs wrapped tightly encircling Shizuka's waist. Her blood turned into molten lava.

"Will you dry me off, Shizuka-chan?" inquired the most beautiful girl she had ever seen, whose gorgeous face was so close she could smell the other teenager's searingly warm and overwhelmingly fragrant breaths. From the bottom of her heart, she wished the distance between her mouth and her sister's slightly open one to be gone. It was so hard not to lean in. It was so difficult not to claim these seemingly delicious lips. She was burning from inside out just by trying to hold herself back. It was a great deal more excruciating than usual because with round water drops dripping off her fine golden hair and sparkling like morning dew under the sun on her face as well as the skin on the visible part of her slim body, she was at her most visually stunning and alluring in a most innocent way.

"I'm cold, Shizuka-chan," allowed her sweetheart, who made what she said more of an invitation than a complaint. "Please..."

Shizuka removed the towel obscuring the most sensitive parts of her first love, baring the sixteen-year-old's shapeliness to the fluorescent light and her very own sapphire gaze. Her breath caught and her heart suspended in amazement, she beheld a gloriously nude Kotoha who did not appear even remotely embarrassed by showing the most personal parts of her body to another girl.

"Dry me off first," the other Himemiya laid a finger across Shizuka's parched lips, "and you can look all you want, ne?" Judging by the nearly inaudible quality of her sister's voice, Shizuka suspected that the second part was never meant to be heard. Her face was nearing eruption like a volcano that had been fuming for weeks.

"Can you... do it on your own?" Shizuka pleaded. She knew that she was in no condition fit to lay her hands on the unclothed body of her sweetheart, with or without having the towel separating their skins.

A moment of hesitation.

"Sure." Kotoha sounded more than disappointed.

The Ototachibana second-year took the towel from Shizuka's hand and used it to wipe the water off of her fair, unblemished skin.

Shizuka never imagined that watching a girl fumbling with a towel could get her so worked up.

Her eyes never blinked as they drank in the magical sight. They could not help but roam her sweetheart's magnificent nude form as the latter dried herself off in somewhat awkward but more than just adorable movements. Mesmerized and bedazzled, they followed the rhythm of the other Himemiya's rising and falling chest, mounds of perfection deserved to be caressed by the gentlest hands. Neither could they help but notice that the twinned carmine rosebuds crowning the orbs of perkiness were gaining in stiffness, whether from the cool air of the room or something else Shizuka did not dare even think about. Once or twice she would grow either distracted or bold enough to let her eyes wander further down south, past the deliciously even and downy-smooth field of Kotoha's abdomen, to feast almost ravenously on the feminine treasure beckoning the touch of a pair of lips or the tip of a loving tongue. She would always pull back her gaze as hard as anyone would crack a whip.

"Shouldn't you do something about your clothes?" suggested Kotoha. "They're soaked."

"Um..."

Not another word had a chance to escape her mouth. The other adolescent, down whose shoulders and across whose beautiful bosom the towel draped, pulled down the shoulder straps of Shizuka's night gown and let it slide down her upper torso, revealing everything beneath. Stunned, deathly embarrassed, horribly conscious of the state of undress she was in, she hastily folded her arms across her bosom and watched her normally deathly shy Kotoha slipped the piece of garment off of her body, leaving on her nothing more than a pair of lacy cotton panties guarding over her maidenhood.

The embarrassment seemed to be contagious as it painted her sister's cheeks with a scarlet shade. And yet it did little to keep the girl off balance.

"What's the point of hiding now?" murmured the beauty a year her junior. "I've seen you without clothes plenty of times, haven't I?"

With a smile tinted by mild shyness, Kotoha took Shizuka's arms by the wrists, gingerly removed them from her chest, and had them wrap around the former's slim waist. Nonchalant about the towel that slipped off her shoulder and fell to the bed, the gorgeous angel shifted inward, slipped her arms around Shizuka's neck, hugged her tightly, and allowed their equally naked bosoms to share a deep, passionate kiss. The softness pressed upon her own breasts, the succulent stiffness tipping the younger girl's chest she could not help noticing, the natural fragrance from her sister that scented the air she took in through her nose, and the tangible warmth that enveloped them both nearly drove her insane with needs.

Able to do little else, she fastened her arms about her precious sunlight's unclothed frame and hugged her as tightly as she could. That which she exhaled was steam. That which she inhaled was alcohol. She was holding a burning log, if one that was smoother than velvet and more fragrant than a rose in full bloom. She tried to ignore the moist but indescribably warm silkiness tentatively grazing her abdomen. She knew that if she paid too much attention, she would pass out from the overload of all senses.

She had never been so... _aware_ of her sweet sister. Every rise and fall of her well-proportioned breasts. Every pulse of the crown jewel adorning her luscious rose. Every breath she released. Every sound her heart made. She was conscious of them all.

Uncomfortable silence hung over her head until she could stand it no more.

"Does it still hurt... anywhere, Kotoha?" she asked, her voice more breathless than she anticipated. The longer she hugged her first love, without a stitch to cover her feminine charms, like this, the more she felt like she had contracted a fever. But Gods, Kotoha could have been born just for her to hug the way the girl's bare body fit so perfectly in the curves of her arms. _How is it possible that doing something that feels so right can be so wrong?_ she thought in deep bitterness.

"Yes," professed the sixteen-year-old.

"Where?"

"My... lower back," the younger Himemiya disclosed. The timbre of her tone was an emotion Shizuka failed to recognize.

"Here?" She placed a hand a few inches above her sister's back dimples. Kotoha shivered at the touch. Her warm breaths caressed the skin on Shizuka's shoulders. Her fingers dug into Shizuka's back.

"Further down, Shizuka-chan," instructed a younger and infinitely better-looking adolescent.

For the next few seconds, Shizuka continued to lower her hand at the urging of the sixteen-year-old until she realized that her hand now rested on a round cheek of her first love's bottom. Shizuka could not help but marvel in awestruck silence at the incredible softness she discovered, at the silken quality of her beloved's skin, at the roundness's sensual curves, and of the gasp full of delights that the nude beauty in her arms had just released. Touching another girl had never felt so satisfying.

"Yes, there..." whispered the clotheless angel, her voice possessing a sultry quality never present in her everyday life's speech. She could very well have been lying on a bed and enjoying the touches of an ardent lover.

Even though Shizuka was determined to still her hand, it ignored her order and continued to roam and caress her baby sister's soft posterior, sparing no inch unloved. The little angel gave no indication that she minded. On contrary, she seemed to like it so much she continued to gasp in pure bliss into Shizuka's ears and occasionally arched her lower torso forward, innocently increasing the intensity of the kiss shared between Shizuka's taut thigh and her succulent moistness. Her heart tried to break its way out of her chest.

"Does it still hurt?" she inquired, realizing in horror that what she wanted to say and what she did never bore any resemblance. Someone else could have been moving her mouth and having it issue words she would like to but would never do under normal circumstances.

"If I say _'No,'_ are you going to take your hand away?"

Shizuka nodded and gasped aloud the moment Kotoha kissed her throat.

"Then yes." Her first love chortled, pouring more oil into the flame raging across Shizuka's body.

For the first time in her life, she realized that in Kotoha's presence, her willpower dwindled within every second that passed. And so did the control over her own limbs.

"You don't have to sit all the times," said her little angel. "Why don't you lie down?"

Before she knew it, she was already on her back on the soft and spacious mattress, gazing up at a Himemiya Kotoha who was crouching on her knees and hands and smiling down at her sister, apparently oblivious to the lack of clothes on her gorgeous body. A second later, the younger girl was on her stomach and lying on Shizuka's naked front, the former's slim arms folded beneath Shizuka's head to provide a very comfortable pillow. The sixteen-year-old seemed ready to melt into Shizuka's flesh. The little princess's heartbeat was loud and quick as it harmonized with Shizuka's own into an erratic rhythm.

"I like being held by you like this, Shizuka-chan," announced the girl she loved, whose stunning countenance was an inch away from hers.

Not sure as to how to respond, Shizuka kept her mouth shut and continued to hug her sister while noting in pleasure and ruefulness that the latter's hardened rosebuds were brushing against her own twinned stiffness with the ragged breaths she took. She almost passed out when she realized how hot and moist her sister's maidenhood, pressed ever so gently against one of her thighs, was. A part of her hoped the moisture was from the water of the bath. Another part urged her to believe otherwise.

"Would you like to sleep with me like this from now on?" proposed the unclothed wonder nestled lovingly and tightly within her embrace, cutting off her train of thoughts.

"You mean whether I..." Shizuka choked on her words, "want to share a bed with you naked?"

Kotoha blushed hotly, but she did nod.

"Why... all of a sudden?" Shizuka said, her voice hoarse.

"Because..." Kotoha hesitated, "I love looking at you without clothes, you being so beautiful and all." She burrowed deeper into Shizuka's embrace. "Plus, it's so nice to cuddle with you in nothing but your skin. I love having your naked body pressed against mine like this. I love the way yours feel. Not too soft, not too firm. Just right for my preferences. And you're so warm, too. You'd be a perfect pillow when winter comes, Shizuka-chan."

"But you said something about wearing something I liked to bed earlier." Shizuka's head spun. Her mouth was spouting words formed before she knew what they meant. "What happened... to that?"

"You can't see what I wear when you're not awake," answered the sunlight of her world, sounding shy. "I'll... put on some pretty lingerie to bed for you to look at for sure... but only until we're going to sleep, ne? After that... maybe I'll ask you to take off my clothes for me." Her voice grew so low toward the end it was nearly inaudible, her body heat so high she could have contracted a fever. Her natural scent blended with the sweet fragrance rising from her maidenhood, overloading Shizuka's senses.

She was at a loss for words. She never expected that her little sister, shy at the very core of her existence, could say something as bold as this. Silence hung between them.

"So you don't like the idea," the girl she loved murmured in dejection. "I should have known..."

"Can I at least keep my... panties on?" Shizuka interjected in her gentlest voice, her blood raging and boiling in her veins. She was sure that had her sister made this request in a different setting, she would never have even considered it. In _this_ situation, where an atmosphere of sensuality and love shrouded them ever since she retrieved her sister from the bathroom, her resolve shrank with every word spoken.

No other outcome was possible.

"You mean... you're okay with it?" the younger Himemiya breathed, her melodious voice ringing with wonder and astonishment.

"You... have not answered my question," Shizuka pointed out, noting the fondness in her tone.

Kotoha blushed so furiously her face was the essence of the most glorious sunset that ever graced the earth. "What... what if I told you I wanted it off too?"

"Why?" Heat flared from the pit of her stomach, rushed up her body, and enveloped her brain.

"Do I have to answer?" the sunlight of her world chimed. "It's... really embarrassing."

"You do... if you want me to go to bed with you without anything on," Shizuka said.

"I don't why you'd... want to keep it on anyway," Kotoha sidestepped the question. "Can't you tell that I... enjoy looking?" The golden-haired beauty trembled within the curves of Shizuka's arms moments before she bit Shizuka lovingly on her throat. "Listen to what kind of weird things you're making me say."

As if on cue, the cool light from the fluorescent tubes on the ceiling went out, drowning the room in complete darkness.

"Shizuka-chan..." Kotoha choked, her voice wild with fear. Her body trembled atop Shizuka's.

"Don't be afraid," she assured her first love. "I am here. I am not going to leave you by yourself."

Ironically, it was _she_ Kotoha should fear instead of the darkness.

After every second she spent in the darkness, her self-control slipped from her like drops of liquid silver. Every moment during which her sight was taken away heightened her other senses, allowing her to become even more aware of her sweet and naked sibling. She could smell the other girl's natural fragrance more easily, feel her overflowing body heat more acutely, and hear her erratic heartbeat more clearly. It was as though she was inside her sister's head. This gorgeous and awfully soft and warm body nestled so lovingly in her arms could have been hers.

It was either a cruel twist of fate arranged by the Gods... or a simple coincidence, but she knew that something bad was going to happen as soon as she felt Kotoha shifting her body in the dark in one moment and sensed a pair of moist lips finding her own in the next. There was a moment of hesitation, which she could not be sure that was not a figment of her imagination, before the impassioned meeting of lips deepened from both ends.

There was naught she could do to stop the sweet and nearly delirious sensation connecting their trembling mouths from being blown into a kiss so passionate it fanned the coals smoldering beneath her skin and splashed a great deal of oil into the flames raging at the pit of her stomach. She knew she had lost all of her self-restraint and determination. She knew she has crossed the line. And yet at the moment, she could not care less. Overjoyed, she devoured the delicious lips offered to her so voluntarily and swallowed down the satisfied gasps and whimpers the perfect being in her embrace gave. Meanwhile, her fingertips meandered over Kotoha's back, memorizing pressure points and kneading soft muscles and squeezing tight bottom cheeks.

Under the impression that any word that escaped her mouth at this moment might end up ruining the magical night she had received from the Gods, she remained quiet and continued to worship her sister's luscious lips with her own. The sensual darkness with solid form caught in Shizuka's arms never resisted. If anything, the eclipsed angel seemed to be encouraging Shizuka to be bolder with the frantic touches her fingertips were blessing Shizuka's face and the delicious moisture her gentle mouth was bestowing on Shizuka's lips as they slowly but smoothly exchanged their positions on the bed, allowing Shizuka to lie down atop her sweetheart and experience the incomparable softness below. They never broke their fervent kiss.

Having grown much more comfortable with the situation she was in, she settled down to enjoy the overpowering warmth invading her existence and set out to etch into her mind the curves of the naked body of a girl who had willingly delivered herself into her grasp. Her hand fell gently upon the golden-haired beauty's face and roamed her beloved's countenance, recording noble features on that heart-shaped wonder and often slowing down to receive hot kisses bestowed all over its palm. It slipped further southwards to caress a swan neck that housed an intricate ensemble of vocal cords capable of strumming musical sounds the strings of a grand piano could not.

Emboldened by her sister's sharp but blissful intakes of air as well as her apparently acquiescent silence, Shizuka allowed her hand to explore the uncharted territories and curled her fingers around a full, round breast. She gasped at the same time that the sensual darkness did, every particle of her palm ringing in amazement at the breathtaking softness it was enfolding, at the searing warmth emanating from within its tender grasp, and at the wonderful stiffness caught between its gentle digits. Feeling as though she was climbing closer and closer toward the heights of pleasure just from touching this globe of perfection, she gave it a tentative squeeze and was rewarded with a deep sigh full of contentment from the girl she loved.

In defiance of a small voice of reason buzzing at the back of her head, she eased her hand down across the heavenly field that was Kotoha's pleasantly flat abdomen, paused briefly to explore the clean depression at its center with an inquisitive fingertip, and stopped where she knew the smoothness of her eclipsed angel's lower torso was about to give way to a source of heat no less intense than a hearth in the dead of winter. Her throat dry and her mind void of all thoughts, she pushed her hand even further down.

Her fingers arrived at the enflamed mound of silkiness and smoothness nestled tightly between her sister's thighs. _Warm, so very warm,_ was the first thought that crossed her euphoric mind. _She is so moist._ Her consciousness spinning madly at the unfamiliar yet ever so welcoming wetness, she caressed and held the younger Himemiya's priceless treasure as tightly as she could without discomfiting her. Kotoha showed no sign of wanting to push her hand away. The occasional soft and melodious cries she released after every affectionate rub or squeeze proved the opposite.

Still feeling no sign of resistance from the girl she loved and no evidence of protest from her befuddled mind, she slid downward, allowing her trembling lips and tongue to taste and savor the warm, velvety quality of the younger Himemiya's skin.

More whimpers, no softer than the first. Shallower but more frantic intakes of air. More frequent tremors that rocked the sixteen-year-old's precious and pristine frame. Stronger, sharper, and much sweeter feminine fragrance permeated the air she breathed.

All thoughts vacated her spellbound mind as her mouth rained kisses along the steep valley nestled tightly between a pair of twinned and perfectly formed pertness. Her heart thundered away in her chest at the speed of light as her moist tongue found the other girl's navel, a cute depression placed at the heart of a flat and silkily smooth meadow, where she knew full well her sister's slim lower torso was about to give way to the wonderful sweetness guarded by her svelte and lithesome thighs. Shizuka's entire body could have been thrown into a volcano the moment her lips came into contact with a gentle mound of flesh so soft it would make marshmallow seem hard, so smooth silk would grow green in envy, so moist it could have been the juicy flesh of a mikan, and so fragrant it would be difficult for any flower's aroma to compete.

Suddenly aware of what she was kissing so tenderly, she felt her adolescent mind spin and her lips burn and her throat become parched.

All of her restraints shed and broken, she kissed the other teenager more deeply, drawing from her a sharp cry and inducing an involuntary twitch of her slim and oh-so-slender legs.

Light from the fluorescent tubes on the ceiling flashed into life, heralding the end of brief outage.

Jerking her head backward in response to the sudden illumination, Shizuka kept her eyes closed and only opened them fully once they had adjusted themselves to the light. It was then that reality slapped her across her face. Horror seized her at the same time her stomach lurched so strongly she thought she was going to throw up.

 _Gods, what am I doing to my sister?_ she thought in a rush of undiluted fear.

Looking up from between Kotoha's long and smooth thighs, Himemiya Shizuka saw a sixteen-year-old whose face, red as the sun at twilight, was painted with something very close to shock and whose eyes were shining with unsaid pleas.

Naked body chilled to deathliness all of a sudden, Shizuka felt herself crumbling to her elementary particles as she retreated on all fours from the nude form of the girl she loved. She knew that without the return of electrical power, she would have committed a most heinous crime against a girl born of the same flesh and blood.

It was the absence of light that took away her self-restraint. It was her undying love and insatiable need for Kotoha that made her take advantage of the latter, who had been reduced to a helpless child in the face of her innate fear of the dark. She could not have sunk lower, seeing how she was but a few seconds away from violating the innocence of the one she loved most.

Throat clenched by despair and heart nettled by disgust with her own self, she continued to crawl backward until she fell off the bed and down onto the carpeted floor. Tears burst from the wells of her eyes. It was not because of the pain twisting various parts of her body. It was because of the realization that she had destroyed the relationship she had spent her life cultivating by her sister's side.

"Shizuka-chan!" exclaimed the sunlight of her world. "Are you okay?"

"I am so sorry, Kotoha." Every fiber of her existence ringing and tensing in mental agony, she scrambled back to her feet and stormed out of her sister's room, ignoring the latter's startled cries and desperate pleas for her to come back. Her soul crumbling into unrecognizable pieces, she ran into her safe sanctuary and rummaged through her closet for something to cover her naked skin.

Having lost everything she treasured in but a brief moment in which she succumbed to darkness, she reached for the car key on the table. She could not bear staying in this house any more. She could no longer face the girl she loved. Bleakness seized her as she hurried out of her room.

* * *

Supine and without a stitch to cover her frame on the bed, Himemiya Kotoha stared at the bright ceiling, sensing hot tears rolling down her cheeks. _Gods, what have I done?_ It was supposed to be a magical night for her and her elder sister. She had even planned to make her confession before the evening was over to the girl she loved with all her heart and soul. Because of her unrestrained behaviors, everything was ruined. Now, even the precious sisterly bond they had spent sixteen years to cultivate was destroyed. She bit on her lips hard enough to draw blood. It was all her fault.

* * *

 _When Himemiya Kotoha stepped into this VIP screening room, she didn't think that destiny had a surprise in store for her. When she learned of the movie entitled_ "A love against Fate" _months ago from the media as well as from her mothers, she had always assumed that it chronicled a pair of sisters as they struggled through life and eventually found love in a bustle metropolis. It did sound like a normal drama flick where angst and cheesiness ruled from start to finish. It was something for which Kotoha wouldn't have paid the time and effort to go to a theater had it not been for the simple fact that she wished to support her beloved Chi-kaa-chan, who composed its musical scores. Little did she know that the summary floating around actually alluded to something heavens and earth apart from what it advertized._

"A love against Fate" _unfolded in a spacious hallway of a two-story house, from a door in which stepped out a girl with a face so stunning her drowsy expression could not eclipse her beauty. Yawning, she had climbed the stairs down to the first floor just to be sent back to where she started by her mother, who named her Aoi, so she could rouse her twin Akari, who was sleeping soundly in her room. Silently, Aoi, whose waist-length hair bore the exact same azure shade as that of Shizuka, sat down on one of the beds and tried to wake a girl who didn't look remotely like her but possessed the same kind of lustrous golden hair as Kotoha._

 _A few failed attempts and a successful one eventually delivered the older of the twins into the embrace of the younger, who refused to rise from her bed. Kotoha knew something was amiss the moment she noticed the pure adoration in the sisters' eyes when they looked at one another, the full blush dying their complexion beet-red when they exchanged seemingly innocent kisses on their cheeks, and the heartrending hesitation that showed on their face when they had to pull away. She became more and more confident that she wasn't watching what she expected while the story introduced more insights into the sisters' minds._

 _As the movie, the sole focus of which was the twins, progressed, the relationship between Aoi and Akari became anything but sisterly. Their actions and behaviors steadily grew passionate, the small distance separating them from the beginning significantly shrunk, and the air they breathed always suffused with intimacy. Akari reminded Kotoha of herself every time the former touched her elder twin, when she kissed her sister, or when she fed Aoi food with her own hand and turned it into something that bore a striking resemblance to a romantic scene between lovebirds. All she ever saw was herself and Shizuka during a scene in which the twins shared a shower, in which the two girls seemed much more interested in beholding each other's moist face and caressing one another with trembling fingers than taking a bath._

 _Having lost herself completely in the holographic screen depicting the daily life of the teenaged girls as well as the hardship they encountered due to a mother who opposed their mutual feelings with every particle of her body, Kotoha watched with bated breath while surrendering her grip on everything around her, sensing that a screen of darkness that had been obscuring a part of her heart was lifting. Reality came back to hit her and a flash of light flared within her mind in a series of clarion explosion, however, the moment the bomb was dropped and the truth revealed one night in the movie, when it became undeniable to Kotoha that the twins were in love._

 _Mind enshrouded in confusion and doubts, she continued to watch. She desired to know what was going to happen to the sisters in the end. She wished to be assured that they would ultimately realize their sincere feelings for one another and find eternal happiness. Frame by frame, she learned a little more of her own heart and came closer to understand why she had been acting in such an inexplicable manner toward Shizuka. By the time the credit rolled, she already realized that what she harbored toward the precious person now sleeping soundly by her side, in the same seat, was far beyond what a girl might have toward her older sister. Her amethyst eyes stung as tears overflowed and streaked down her cheeks. Who could have thought that what she truly needed had been next to her all along?_

* * *

Tears blurred her vision.

Overwhelmed by her newly discovered feelings, she had not paid attention to anything she did in front of the girl she loved. Without a lid on her tumultuous emotions, she said things her normal self would swallow her tongue before she spoke and she did things the once oblivious Kotoha would blush herself to death before doing. All she ever wanted was to experience more of the indescribably wonderful sensations known only to a girl in love. Because Shizuka had been so acquiescent, so subdued, and so eager to accede to Kotoha's whims, she never managed to realize that she had gone too far before it was all too late.

She was sure the Himemiya princeling must have been caught in the spur of the moment when she began to touch Kotoha in various places and even kissed Kotoha where she was weakest. She was sure her sister was simply drawn along in the spiral of sensuality. And even a blind person would realize that when the older girl realized what she was doing, she was beside herself with disgust. Kotoha now knew what her beloved onee-chan thought about a romantic relationship between girls born from the same parents.

Kotoha's love was never going to be returned by the person she loved most.

Her heart squeezed in nerve-severing pain.

* * *

 _Friday, June 26th, 2:02 AM._

* * *

"They are not home yet," Himemiya Chikane observed, noting the empty space in the brightly lit garage next to the spot where she just parked her silver Mercedes. It was where Shizuka's BMW, which she did not drive that frequently to begin with, often lay under a dust cover. "The movie ended hours ago. Did they not know that it was dangerous for them to be out so late? Where could they be anyway?" She frowned. "Every store in Mahoroba City closes down at midnight except the bars, and they are not old enough to be admitted to one yet." She turned to her beloved wife, who was wearing a little smile on her cherry petal lips and a faint blush on her lovely face.

"Why don't we go in first, Chikane-chan?" suggested Himeko. "We'll call them then, okay?"

Chikane nodded.

They were both surprised upon discovering that their youngest daughter's shoes were on the shelf and their eldest's nowhere to be found. Exchanging troubled glances, she and her faithful companion hurried inside and nearly had her heart broken when she found the sixteen-year-old in a pair of rumpled pajama hugging her legs in front of her sister's room, the door to which was ajar and the interior of which was without a soul. The teenager was crying her eyes out in agony.

"What's wrong, Kotoha?" Himeko asked and quickly sank to her knees, her amethyst eyes as wide as possible in shock. This sight of pure anguish was not what either of them expected to find in the hallway. "What happened?"

"Kaa-chan..." their youngest daughter sobbed and threw herself into Himeko's embrace. "Kaa-chan..." She wept harder than ever in the curves of her mother's arms.

Chikane was shocked. Never once in her wildest dream did she imagine that there would come a day when the child, ever effervescent and in highest spirit, could be this broken. _What did you do to your sister, Shizuka?_ she thought in horror. Her eldest daughter worshipped her youngest with all her heart and soul. There existed no foreseeable future where the seventeen-year-old could become cruel enough to force herself on someone who did not _want_ her attention. And as far as she was concerned, Kotoha actually _did!_ The girl would never _think_ of resisting her precious sister, the one toward whom she had developed an immense crush during the last several days. _But if that was the case, what in Heaven's name could have occurred in this house?_

Mouth tight and soul contracting in pure agony, she gently extracted the golden-haired child from her other mother's arms, scooped the girl into her own, and quietly carried her out of the dimly lit hallway with Himeko trailing after them and looking worried out of her wits. On a sofa in the spacious living room Chikane put her precious daughter and flanked her sides with her beloved wife.

"Cry no more," she whispered and stroked the sixteen-year-old's head. "Tears will not solve your problem, Kotoha. Calm down and tell your mothers what has gone wrong, please?"

The child did no such thing. Whether she had not heard Chikane's voice in her grief or she could not control her tumultuous emotions, she continued to weep and weep and weep furiously into her hands. Chikane and Himeko scratched their heads in exasperation as they were reminded of the inconvenient little detail that it was torturously difficult to contain Kotoha's avalanche of tears once the first drop had been spilled from the wells of her eyes. Despite being her mothers, neither Chikane nor Himeko had had an easy time with the girl when she was overcome by emotions. Worse, the one person in the whole wide world who could assuage the sixteen-year-old and stop her flows of anguish in but an effortless manner was not present in this room.

Chikane decided to invoke that person's name. "Where is Shizuka?" she asked in a quiet voice.

The effect was immediate. The teenager lifted her tear-drenched face from her palm and looked at Chikane for a full thirty seconds before she opened her delicate mouth and sobbed in a voice so full of grief it crushed Chikane's heart, "She... she left, Chi-kaa-chan..." More tears streaked down her pale cheeks. The light of distress shone more brightly than ever in those amethyst eyes. "She... she hates me so much..." a painful, strangled sob echoed in the air and compelled Himeko to pull her youngest daughter back into the safe haven of her arms, "she took the car and... and drove off. She... doesn't want to see me anymore..." She buried her face in her golden-haired mother's bosom and cried.

Chikane could not believe her ears. _That cannot be true,_ she thought. _That is not Shizuka. She would die before she managed to harbor any sort of unkind thought toward her sister._

"What made you think so?" she pressed with as much forcefulness as she could afford without inciting Kotoha's distress. "What did the two of you do when we were not home?"

Encouraged by the gentle strokes Himeko's hand was bestowing on her head and in a breaking voice that hurt Chikane as much as a needle would when it ran rampant in her veins, Kotoha began to talk.

According to the child, whose innate bashfulness permitted her no disclosure of the true details and allowed nothing but vague descriptions, she and her sister were alone in bed when they unknowingly became victims of the darkness of the power outage. Innocent conversations had given way to hesitant explorations, which in turn ignited passions and fanned the flames of desires. One thing leading to another, Kotoha had found herself more than willing and ready to relinquish everything she had to her sister, who rejected it and ran out of her room in what Kotoha believed to be pure horror and panic.

"I shouldn't have done what I did..." she sobbed, "but after I realized that I was in love with her, I couldn't help it." She burrowed deeper into Himeko's embrace and buried her face in Himeko's chest. Her voice shattered in fear. "I know I shouldn't have... but I couldn't help it, kaa-chan." Another strangled sound in her throat. "I'm sorry..." She sounded at her wits' end, afraid of her own confession and unsure what her mothers were going to do to her now that they had known the truth. "I'm so sorry," she sobbed harder, "but I love onee-chan so much I can't stop thinking about her even after she left, kaa-chan..."

"Never be sorry for falling in love, Kotoha," Chikane whispered and moved closer to where her youngest daughter was enclosed in her other mother's tight embrace. Smiling softly now, she laid a hand on the child's head and raked it through the fine tresses of her lustrous golden hair, a treasure that she had inherited from Himeko. Her action, despite how gentle as it was, shocked Kotoha so greatly she fell quiet. Raising her soaked countenance from the photographer's chest, she stared speechlessly at Chikane with widened eyes while her tears relentlessly washed down her cheeks. The sixteen-year-old never expected acceptance waiting for her at the end of the line.

"We knew, Kotoha," Himeko said soothingly and carefully dried off the teenager's tears with a handkerchief she produced from her purse. "We knew you had become smitten with Shizuka even before you noticed it yourself. We sent you to that movie because we were trying to help you come to terms with your own feelings, you see." Her smile broadened. "Apparently, we succeeded."

"Then..." their youngest daughter stammered in sheer disbelief, "then you don't mind... me being love with onee-chan at all?" No one could blame her for assuming that bad things would befall her because she harbored romantic feelings toward a girl of the same flesh and blood. Not when this society had done its best to promote one kind of love at the same time it denounced all others, branding them with the label of immorality and sin.

"We do not," Chikane affirmed. "We love you regardless of whom you chose for your romantic interest. To tell you the truth," she rubbed her forehead on that of her precious child in a fondest manner, "we are overjoyed _because_ the person you chose was your sister." Himeko offered her adolescent daughter a concurrent nod and an even brighter smile.

Amazement unfolded on Kotoha's tear-stained face. "Why?" she asked in a light voice that was racked with incredulity. "Why does it have to be onee-chan?"

"Because it would make Shizuka very happy, child," Chikane answered, seeing her amusement reflected in her faithful companion's eyes. "Because it would deliver her from the torments she put herself through since you accepted Mikoto's confession."

"What... do you mean?" the adolescent asked, her voice breathy, her chest puffing in disbelief, her distress no longer in sight. Comprehension was dawning like the morning sun in her stunningly clear amethyst gems, yet another fine trait she inherited from the woman Chikane loved.

"Shizuka's madly in love with you, Kotoha," Himeko clarified, her face affectionate and her voice fond beyond words. "For a long time now, her eyes see only you." _Even more than that,_ Chikane assessed. Even before Shizuka discovered what lay in the depths of her soul, her mind was always occupied with thoughts of Kotoha, her heart beating for none but Kotoha's sake.

"That... can't be..." said the teenager with her hands clutching her mouth, the joyous note in her tattered voice belying the true emotions in her heart. "I... I can't believe it." Tears once again gushed from the swollen wells of her beautiful amethyst eyes. They were happy ones, heavens and earth apart from those she had shed earlier, when Chikane and Himeko came home and found her sitting by herself in the hallway. "How... how did you know, kaa-chan? I... never noticed..."

"How did we know?" Chikane chuckled, amused by the innocence of the youngest Himemiya. Himeko gave her a meaningful look. "We are your parents. We watched you grow up. There is very little about you that we do _not_ know. Come here to your Chi-kaa-chan, Kotoha." She opened her arms and gazed at her precious daughter as the latter slowly left her other mother's equally warm embrace and eased herself into Chikane's instead. Smiling happily and contently now, she hugged the fruit of her labor, the spark of life she had carried in her womb for nine months and ten days, and the invaluable creation of her and Himeko's love.

"Kaa-chan," the adolescent murmured.

"You were too young to notice, Kotoha," Chikane began, "but you mean as much to Shizuka as your Hi-kaa-chan to me." She looked up at her beloved wife and was rewarded with a grateful smile for her truthful words. "She loves you so intensely she tumbled down the spiral of depression a little further everyday, thinking to herself that you were beyond her reach."

"Why... didn't onee-chan tell me anything?" The teenager gazed up at her, her precious gems misting in what Chikane was sure to be the heartrending pain she was experiencing in her sister's place. "I would have been so happy to become her girlfriend... I would never have turned her down..."

"I know you would not," she agreed. "The only problem was that Shizuka refused to believe what I said." She sighed. "She saw her love as something twisted and sinful. She was afraid that the truth would disgust you. Moreover, your relationship with Mikoto did not help. In fact, all it did was dealing another fatal blow to her already diminished confidence. They were the reasons why she never confessed."

More tears flooded down Kotoha's cheeks. "Is it... also why onee-chan began to avoid me since Valentine's Day?" Having her question answered by a nod, the sixteen-year-old rubbed her soaked face on Chikane's shoulder and wept, "I hurt her so badly, didn't I? If only... if only I had the courage, onee-chan wouldn't have had to suffer so much." Her hands curled into fists around the clothes on Chikane's front.

"No point taking the blame for what already happened, Kotoha," Himeko said as she closed her gentle arms around Chikane and their youngest daughter both. "The only thing you need to do now is to find Shizuka and tell her how you feel, don't you think?"

"But I don't know where she is, Hi-kaa-chan," sobbed the golden-haired teenager. "I tried calling her cell phone many times, but she wouldn't pick up."

"I can do something about that." Chikane's beloved wife rose to her feet and retrieved her wireless from her purse. "Either of your phones is a GPS tracking device. As long as Shizuka brought hers, I'll find out where she is."

Himeko did not have a chance to do what she said, for the phone in the living room had gone off, startling her in the process. Giving a rueful smile, she went to where the device was and surveyed the caller number on its liquid crystal display. Her delicate eyebrows then furrowed together in curiosity, signifying that she was looking at a number she could not identify. Nevertheless, the photographer pressed a key on the phone and turned on the speaker phone for all in this living room to hear.

"This is Himemiya Himeko," she introduced herself politely, "how may I help you?"

"Good evening, Himemiya-san," greeted a young female voice from the other side of the line. Chikane was sure that Kotoha recognized it, for she suddenly went very still in her embrace. "My name is Aizawa Nanami. I'm Shizuka's classmate. My apologies for disturbing you so late in the evening, but I'm sure you're worried as to where she is." A pause. "She's at my house right now."

The sixteen-year-old, upon learning the whereabouts of the girl she loved, tried to untangle herself from Chikane's embrace and said something. Knowing that the adolescent was quite agitated right now, Chikane tightened her arms around her and hushed her by laying a finger gently across her lips. She went still again.

"I'm very grateful to you for informing me that," Himeko thanked the caller, the former's voice racked with relief. "May I ask whether she's okay?"

"She's sleeping in our guestroom right now," confided Shizuka's classmate. "She had been crying nonstop since appearing at our door a few hours ago, saying over and over and again that she did something terrible to Kotoha-chan." Another pause. "I... never saw her so... broken before. I was only thankful to the Gods that she didn't get into an accident on her way here," the girl continued in a trembling voice that spoke volumes of the shock and horror she must have experienced. Having heard that, Kotoha pulled a hand over her mouth to stop herself from uttering a strangled sob. "I managed to calm her down somewhat and put her to sleep, but I'm not sure what's going to happen when she wakes." A third pause, this one reeking of shame. "I'm not proud of betraying her trust, Himemiya-san, but I had to call. She insisted that she didn't want anybody else to learn where she was but I..." She trailed off.

"Please don't feel guilty for something you did on Shizuka's best interest, Aizawa-san," Himeko assured the caller gently. "She's an understanding child. She won't hold it against you because you only wanted the best for her. Again, you have my deepest gratitude for taking care of her and informing us."

"What are you going to do, Himemiya-san?" Aizawa asked anxiously. "I'm not sure if I can deal with Shizuka in her current state. My parents aren't home and there are only servants in my house who'd rather slit her throat than dip their noses into this situation."

The photographer fell quiet for a brief moment and answered into the phone, "We will come over tomorrow morning, maybe around seven or seven thirty. Would you do me a favor and keep her there until we arrive, Aizawa-san?"

"I'll do what I can, ma'am," the caller said, sounding quite relieved knowing that help would be on the way soon. "I'll see you tomorrow, then. Please have a good evening." She hung up.

"Why don't we come over right away, Hi-kaa-chan?" the sixteen-year-old gushed in agitation. "We can bring her home and take care of her ourselves. Onee-chan doesn't sleep well in strange places."

"But she is sleeping right now," Chikane explained, her lips wearing an amused smile. "Let her rest a little, Kotoha. She had one heck of a night, after all."

"But..." the golden-haired teenager protested.

"You fear the Aizawa girl would put the moves on Shizuka while she is sleeping, do you not?" she interjected gently, sensing her smile broadening at the deep scarlet blush that dyed Kotoha's face. Himeko chuckled softly into a raised hand. "You are aware that she likes Shizuka very much." A thorough survey of her youngest daughter's ever shifting mood during the phone call had told her all she needed to know.

"I am," Kotoha admitted grudgingly. "And she does."

"Needless worries, child," Chikane assessed. "She seems too kind a character to do something that sordid. Besides, Shizuka would cut her wrist open before she _considers_ being unfaithful to you." The statement filled the eyes of the sixteen-year-old with a happiness no amount of words would convey.

"Now, why don't you stay with your mothers tonight, Kotoha?" the photographer suggested. "We might be a much poorer company than your sister," she flashed a meaningful and quite teasing smile that deepened the color on her daughter's cheeks even further, "but we can offer you _interesting_ details about _Shizuka_ even _she_ did not know. How does that sound?"

Although still a little dismayed that she could not fly to her onee-chan's side immediately, Kotoha nodded agreement and came to bed with her mothers, spending the rest of the night listening to a side of her love story she was never aware of and eventually sleeping soundly in their tight and protective embrace

* * *

 _Saturday, June 27th, 7:16 AM._

* * *

"What do you think, Himemiya?" prompted Aizawa Nanami, who was surveying her crush's svelte back as the latter feasted her eyes on the wonderful collection stored in the Instrument Chamber of her house. Not only did her mom and dad happen to be famed musicians known across the country, albeit not as much as the world-renowned pianist that the other girl's mother was, they also had an intense love of collecting every kind of musical instruments they chanced upon. Atop one pedestal in this humongous chamber proudly stood a rain stick handcrafted in South America, on another rested a thousand-year-old yueqin rumored to have belonged to some Chinese Emperor's royal consort.

"They are wondrous," praised the blue-haired girl, who looked absolutely stunning in a loose white button shirt and a pair of casual jeans, as she stood in front of a glass cupboard in which she could see a multitude of different kinds of flutes. What caught her eyes appeared to be a very long transverse flute made entirely from pale white jade with a subtle rosy glint like a Maiden's Blush. Having witnessed no fewer revolving seasons than the yueqin at the center of the room, the priceless Nomad Soul was crafted into existence in mainland China and had passed from one hand to another during the last thousand years just to end up in the possession of Nanami's parents. The holes elegantly placed along its smooth length, adjusted accordingly by a flutist's skilled fingers during his or her performance, were capable of producing crystalline notes no western instruments could hope to imitate.

"Take it out if you want," she said to her beautiful classmate, feeling that she had done the right thing by bringing the girl here. Upon waking just fifteen minutes ago, Shizuka had looked like someone who had lost her soul the way she sat on the bed of the guestroom and stared out of the window, beyond which there was only a cloudy sky that threatened rain later in the day.

"Can I?" the other girl asked quietly. "It does look very fragile... and expensive."

"Not too expensive," Nanami lied. "I don't think my parents would mind even if you broke it." They actually would, but Nanami would just say that she broke it herself. They had always spoiled her silly, so the worst they could do to her was ground her for a few days. It was a penalty she was willing to receive in exchange for the enjoyment of the girl she loved.

"Okay then." Shizuka opened the cupboard. When the shiny flute crafted from pure jade came into her hands, she stared at its beautiful length in amazement before she gingerly lifted it to her mouth and played a few notes. The amazing chords she struck were so clear and so reminiscent of a cerulean heaven without a hint of cloud that she blinked in surprise. Nanami idly wondered if blowing on the same place on the flute would constitute an indirect kiss. Maybe not, she decided. After all, these beautiful lips barely touched the thing... She dispelled the thought from her mind with a slight shake of her head just in time to see that the girl of her dreams had lowered the elegant wind instrument from her mouth, appearing a little dazed.

"What's wrong, Himemiya?" she asked curiously.

"Nothing," replied her classmate in a quivering voice. "I just... remembered how I used to stand in my room and played the flute for my... sister to hear." Her sapphire gems misted. Her mouth tightened. Her right hand curled into fist around the millennium Nomad Soul. "I am very sorry, Aizawa. I would like to be by myself for a little while."

"Ah, okay," Nanami said in disappointment and turned on her heels.

"No, no!" Shizuka grabbed her by the wrist and stopped her in her tracks. "I did not mean for you to leave, class rep. I was trying to ask you if I could borrow this," her eyes fell upon the jade instrument in her other hand, "and spend some time alone in your garden." She turned her magnificent head and directed her sorrowful gaze toward the doors of the chamber that already opened to a windy balcony, beyond which lay the vast garden of the Aizawa estate. At the heart of the lush piece of land, filled with groves of flowers and fountains and koi ponds, stood a small gazebo with a dome roof supported by vine-clad Corinthian columns and surrounded by a bed of colorful roses.

"Oh sure!" Nanami assented quickly.

"Thank you, class rep." The taller girl studied her silently for a few seconds and pulled her into a light hug. "You are a good friend. Thank you for taking me in when I did not have anywhere else to go." She released Nanami from her arms, in which she would have loved to spend an eternity. Gods above, the contact was so brief and so light, lasting barely long enough to allow her to feel the softness of her crush, it only made her crave for more.

"Don't mention it." She gave a dismissive wave of her hand, feeling extremely guilty because she had already sold this beautiful being in front of her back to her parents last night. _But it's for her own good!_

"I will see you later, Aizawa." Shizuka left the Instrument Chamber with the thousand-year-old flute in her hand and a heavy boulder in Nanami's heart.

Quietly, she walked to the balcony, from where she watched the eldest daughter of the prestigious Himemiya cross the garden and seat herself at the stone table at the gazebo's heart. Soon afterwards, the clouds that had been enshrouding the early heavens with their grim grayness ushered big and fat drops of cold liquid down upon the land. The rain fell hesitantly and lightly at first, like a noble-born lady who was shy and conscious of herself when first invited to the dance floor, and then thundered downward like a stampede across the prairie, blanketing everything in sight.

"Ojou-sama?" a female voice drew her attention back to the entrance of the Instrument Chamber, where a woman in black and white Aizawa livery stood. "You have a guest."

"Who is it?" she asked absently.

"They introduced themselves as the Himemiya," answered the maid.

"Ah." Nanami nodded. "I am expecting them, so invite them inside. I will be down in a minute."

"As you wish." The woman bowed in acquiescence and left without making a sound.

When Nanami was halfway down the wide serpentine flight of stairs bridging the first and the second floors, she found the other three members of the Himemiya family seated on one sofa in the huge reception room of the Aizawa Manor, Earl Gray teas with lemon served on the well-polished wooden table in front of them. She had seen the pictures of Shizuka's mothers on various magazines, which she was sure to have involved certain tampering from special effect specialists, but now that she had a chance to behold them with her own eyes, she became convinced that the pictures had barely captured their perfection.

"Good morning," she greeted her guests warmly, shaking their hands when they rose to their feet to show respect. She thought she should curtsy deeply in front of the majestic queen that was Himemiya Chikane. She thought she should kneel down in worship to the angelic golden-haired beauty that was Himemiya Himeko. She thought she should kiss their daughter's hand, a sixteen-year-old girl on her way to grow up to a woman who could steal the heart of every man who laid their eyes on her visage.

She also happened to be the person who spoke first.

"Where is my onee-chan, Aizawa-san?" Kotoha asked in an anxious voice, seemingly unaware of the distinct emphasis she had placed on a certain word. Her parents heard it too, for they exchanged glances suddenly and traded mysterious smiles.

An invisible hand grabbed Nanami's throat. She wasn't too sure how she knew from but a short sentence and the way the two women interacted... but she was certain that something within the youngest daughter of the Himemiya had changed. Worse, she sensed that this particular change involved the girl she had a humongous crush on in a way that wasn't exactly pleasant.

"Please follow me," she said reluctantly and led the Himemiya across the house.

She stopped at a sliding glass pane that opened to the vast garden that was under the constant pummeling of the falling rain. It had grown much lighter than the beginning, allowing Nanami to actually see the shape of the gazebo that was standing unyieldingly under the wrath of the sky and the blurry figure of the blue-haired beauty who was seeking seclusion and refuge within its shelter. Faintly was the melody of the flute radiating in the air, its passage hindered by the sounds of the raindrops striking the roofs. Although it wasn't too clear, she could tell how sorrowful it was. The music that was ringing out from the gazebo could have been a requiem for the dead. She grimaced, suddenly seized by a gush of relief that she wasn't next to Shizuka at the moment. If she were, she would have cried her eyes out until fatigue knocked her unconscious.

"I'll get you an umbrella," she said and turned to look for a nearby servant.

Himemiya Kotoha never heard her. Seemingly unaware of the fury of the heavens, the sixteen-year-old strode forward into the rain and headed straight toward the lone structure in the vast grassy field.

"Hey!" she shouted in shock. "Come back, Kotoha-chan! You'll get sick..."

"It is okay, Aizawa-san," Himemiya Chikane assured her with a smile. "Leave them be for now. I would imagine that they would have much to say to one another." Caught in the imperious queen's sapphire eyes, which exuded upon her a compulsion so powerful considering saying _"No"_ seemed a crime, she nodded, swallowed audibly, and walked with the two women back to the reception hall.

It was there that they found Oogami Mikoto waiting for them. He didn't look pleased at all to see Himemiya Chikane and Himeko. He seemed a little unnerved when he surveyed the entire hall and detected no sight of the girl he loved. Then his face went a little pale.

 _This isn't good,_ Nanami thought, her right hand slapping her forehead.

* * *

The more Himemiya Shizuka ushered out the musical notes from the elegantly crafted jade flute in her hands, the more sorrowful her melody became and the more tears streaked down her cheeks. Under the protection of the gazebo's roof, in the solitude brought to her by the rainfall that isolated her from the rest of society, and amidst the staccato of the descending drops of water, all she could think of with her mouth blowing heartrending notes into the flute was her little sister. She could not help recalling her happier days when she played the musical instrument for Kotoha every night, when her first love would snuggle against her while listening to her favorite melodies, and when the sixteen-year-old always rewarded her with either kisses on the cheeks or the candies she had made prior to coming to bed. It was a vicious cycle in which her memories fed her sadness, her sadness sang the chorus to her tune, and her tune invoked more fond memories that smothered her heart.

Somehow, the rain, emotionless as it was, managed to blend impossibly well with the rhythm of _"The Trail of Tears"_ and augmented even further the sorrow that was the quintessence of its existence. Eventually, it became too much for her. Placing the jade-crafted flute atop the stone table, she dabbed the long sleeves of her button shirt at her face and tried to dry the tears she had shed.

It was only then did Shizuka notice that someone was treading under the rain and heading toward where she sat. It was Kotoha, her little sister, the sunlight of her world, and the girl of her dreams.

With her breath caught and the tune of _"The Trail of Tears"_ ringing in an endless lament in her ears, she watched as the angel, whose golden hair was matted to her face and her soaked crimson tee-shirt clung to her body, approached the gazebo. A voice at the back of her head was telling Shizuka to run away. She did want to heed the advice, but somehow her limps were not obeying her orders. And thus she remained immovable atop the stone bench, capable of doing nothing even though what she thought to be the heartbreak of her life was coming to destroy her. Alarm roared deafeningly in her mind.

"Shizuka-chan," whispered her precious sister the moment she stepped inside the rain-blasted structure. With water dripping from her hair, her face, and her clothes like a miniature rain unto itself, she quietly sat down next to Shizuka, her countenance betraying not a hint of the disgust, fear, and hate she had expected.

"Ko... Kotoha," she called, sensing tears breaking out from her sapphire eyes again as she turned and tremblingly pushed back the strands of golden hair matted to her sweetheart's face. The little angel let her do what she wished, expressing no hesitation from being touched by someone who almost robbed her of her Innocence less than twenty-four hours gone in the wake of a powerful wave of desires and lust. Her hands trembled at the coldness infesting Kotoha's skin, at the moistness of her golden tresses, and at the longing look in her amethyst eyes.

"Why did you leave me by myself last night, Shizuka-chan?" the love of her life inquired in a painful sob. "Why did you abandon me?" Her eyes, far moister than her clothes, summoned a terrible convulsion in Shizuka's heart. "Don't you like me anymore?" Devoid of any hint of accusation it might be, the younger girl's cracking voice was still a knife in Shizuka's gut.

"I will never stop liking you, Kotoha," she answered as her own tears fell audibly onto the smooth surface of the stone bench. "I like you so much an instant apart from you is a lifetime burning in hell's fires... I like you so much everything I looked at since leaving the house last night reminded me of you... But I did something terrible, Kotoha..." She gave a strangled sob that ushered another flood out of the overflowing oceans of her eyes. "How do I have the courage to appear in front of you again?"

The sixteen-year-old shook her head. "You didn't do anything bad at all..."

"How can you say that?" Shizuka pulled back a hand to clutch at her mouth. "I... I almost violated you... and would have if you had not stopped me. How can you say it was not anything bad?"

"I can." Her first love cupped her face with both hands and looked deep into her sapphire eyes. "You didn't force yourself on me. Not when I needed you so badly I didn't want you to stop."

All thoughts vacated Shizuka's head. Her mouth hung open. Her heart went still. Her mind spun back to the previous night, when she first saw on her sibling's face what she had assumed to be rejection. Unless her ears were playing tricks on her now, the sixteen-year-old had just announced that it was not.

"I can't even say how much I wanted you last night," continued her baby sister. "Can you even guess how hopelessly I had fallen for you?" A healthy pink color crept onto her once pale cheeks and lit up her already radiant visage. The water dripping from her face might as well never have been there.

"I love you," she whispered softly, her amethyst gems misted with unshed tears. "I love you very much." She closed her glorious eyes and slowly drew Shizuka into a deep kiss that shut down all her other senses. When her little angel pulled away with a face deeply flushed and aglow with affection, Shizuka buried her face in her hands and wept, unable to believe the events that had transpired within this small gazebo.

On the verge of tears herself, Kotoha peeled Shizuka's hands off of her tear-drenched face and claimed her lips again and again until Shizuka wrapped her arms around the younger girl and kissed her back with an equally enamored enthusiasm, knowing that their relationship was forever changed. Kotoha would remain her baby sister, a girl she adored with her all heart, but she too had become her lover, one by whose side she hoped she could spend the rest of her life.

Four months of desperate longing, internal torments, and constant anguish had come to an end.

Long afterward – how long, she did not know – she found herself sitting on the raised floor of the gazebo with her gorgeous lover cuddled tightly in her embrace. Kotoha's head was on Shizuka's shoulder, a side of her body rested against Shizuka's front, and her slim waist enclosed in the curves of Shizuka's arms. The golden-haired girl's garments were soaked to the point there was not a single dry stitch. Even though it was more or less freezing with the pummeling rain giving no sign of letting up, even though the moisture from Kotoha's hair and shirt and pants were seeping into her own, and even though a gust of wind would sometimes hurl a small shower into this gazebo, she would not trade this place for any other in the world.

"You're so warm," whispered her striking girlfriend, blissfully oblivious to the condition of her clothes. "So very warm." She slipped her hands, a little pruned from the rain she had crossed earlier and the chilly air beneath the small roof, under the fabric of Shizuka's considerably moist shirt and placed them on the small of her back, which she stroked and touched and caressed to her heart's content. Her electric fingertips fumbling playfully with the clasp of Shizuka's bra, she cooed softly into the crook of Shizuka's neck and sought every inch of skin bared to her inquisitive lips. With but the streaking rain shielding its occupants from the prying eyes of the world, this gazebo had become Kotoha's room in a lightless night.

"Who brought you here?" Shizuka inquired in a breathy voice, hoping to distract the girl she loved from the pleasant task she was undertaking.

"Our moms," her lovely and thoroughly drenched girlfriend answered, who suddenly went still in her arms. Looking down, she caught Kotoha blushing hotly at the push-up bra she had under her shirt, rendered transparent by the lashing rain. She nearly whimpered aloud when her gorgeous sister lowered her cherry petal mouth to Shizuka's left breast and kissed it through the fabric of her clothes and undergarment. The shy gleam in the younger girl's amethyst eyes betrayed her dearest wish to unbutton Shizuka's shirt, pull down Shizuka's bra, and placed her lips directly on Shizuka's flesh.

The thought ignited under her skin a flame that could have dried their clothes in a heartbeat.

"Please stop, Kotoha," she pleaded breathlessly. "If you continued, I... I..." Her voice faltered. A part of her wanted the sixteen-year-old to tear open her shirt and rip off her bra just so she could offer her bare breasts for Kotoha to indulge all her five senses upon. A part of her wanted her little sister to cease her unbearably enjoyable torture because she was already at her limits.

"You what?" The sixteen-year-old gazed up at her.

"I might push you down to the floor and make love to you right here, right now," she confessed.

Her little sister turned a deathly shade of scarlet and kept silent for a few moments before she buried her lovely face in the valley of Shizuka's chest and whispered in a tone too sultry to be heard outside the confinement of her bedroom, "You said it like it was a bad thing..."

She retrieved a hand from Shizuka's back and eased it into the gap between her jeans-clad thighs. The flames of a thousand suns gathered on her face and an inadvertent whimper pried itself out of her tight lips as that very same hand petted her, caressed her, and squeezed her lovingly through the coarse fabric. She would have made a great deal more sounds, too, had the sixteen-year-old's mouth not sought hers and devoured any noise she might let out in the wake of an impending climax.

"You said it like I didn't want it," her first love whispered into her mouth, the former's delights barely eclipsed by her inborn shyness "Because I do." The tip of her forefinger traced the placket of the jeans, applying a stress barely able to bestow pleasure but more than enough to tease and exasperate.

"But they can see us here..." Shizuka half-wanted to push her sweetheart's hand away and half-wanted to slide it beneath her stuffy jeans and moistening panties, where it could stay as long as possible and explore as much as its owner needed. "We can... enjoy this together when we are in... our bed, Kotoha, do you not think so?" It was more of a plea than a suggestion.

"It's your punishment," declared the wingless angel.

"For what?" she asked, still a little stunt by the drastic change in their relationship. It was like a dream, she noted, and one from which she would never want to wake.

"For ruining my evening when you left my room," the sixteen-year-old answered into Shizuka's cleavage, her voice a breathless whisper, her hot breath searing through Shizuka's clothes and seeping into her flesh. "For exciting me so much and then leaving me hanging there." The face buried between her full breasts and the hand that had been stroking her fully clothed center could have been made from fire. "That was mean of you, koneko-chan," she chided affectionately.

"I am sorry," Shizuka apologized, sensing more heat billowing from her face as she spoke. "I will make it up to you later, okay?"

"Then... does that..." Kotoha whispered in her shyest voice and bit her through the small gap at the shirt's collar, "does that mean... we're also going to pick up where we left off last night when we get back home?" There hopeful note in her melodious tone rang so loud and clear in Shizuka's ears it dwarfed the sounds of the rain constantly pounding the earth.

"But it is still early, Kotoha," she teased. "Can you wait until the evening?"

"No." Her younger sister gave Shizuka a rueful look as her pearly teeth rounded on a shirt button and one of her fingers explored along the shallow trench of Shizuka's spine. The sixteen-year-old's pulling playfully at the round and small object yet never separating it completely was arguably the most arousing sight she had ever witnessed. "Can you?" The golden-haired angel let go of the button and devoted her tender attention to the spot on Shizuka's throat where a man's Adam's apple would have been. She kissed and sucked on Shizuka's skin gently, causing her to draw a sharp intake of breath and eliciting from her a delightful gasp.

"I do not think so," she answered with a whisper of her own.

"Then don't make me wait anymore, ne?" Her gorgeous sister claimed her lips. Overwhelmed with warmth and honey as she was, she could still realize that their loving kiss contained the full force of Kotoha's fervor and proclaimed to Shizuka in a clarion song how much the sixteen-year-old desired to offer her innocence to Shizuka and receive hers in return. "Let's go home, my beautiful prince," she whispered afterwards, her wondrous amethyst eyes shining more brilliantly than ever. She kissed Shizuka again much more deeply and passionately before she eased herself out of Shizuka's embrace and helped her to her feet.

The rain was letting up, the clouds were clearing, and the rays of the morning sun were bestowing their blessings upon the soaked garden when Shizuka walked hand in hand with her beautiful girlfriend back to the Manor of the Aizawa.

* * *

 _Saturday, June 27th, 9:10 AM._

* * *

Lounging comfortably on the front passenger seat and entrusting her life completely into the hands of the blue-haired princess who was maneuvering the silver Mercedes, Himemiya Himeko couldn't help but pay a great deal of attention to the rear-view mirror reflecting the heartwarming activities going on atop the backseat. There, a pair of lovebirds couldn't seem able to peel their eyes, or hands, off of one another. Still conscious of the presence of their parents in the car, Shizuka and Kotoha weren't able to bring themselves to exchange kisses although their interlocked gazes proved there was little they wanted more. Nevertheless, they fed their desperate need for each other by doing a hundred other things that reminded Himeko of how she and her precious Chikane-chan used to be when they were newlyweds.

"How was your bath, Shizuka-chan?" Kotoha, who was seated sideways on her sister's thighs, asked in a voice so soft she seemed to have meant it for Shizuka's ears alone. _She probably did,_ Himeko noted in amusement. Sometimes her daughters failed to realize that her hearing had never deteriorated in the flow of time. _And_ Shizuka-chan _?_ _Since when did she start calling the girl by her given name?_

"Not too bad," Shizuka whispered back, her right hand stroking along one of her sister's arms. "A bit lonely, though," she added with a teasing smile and brought a shy one to her sister's lips. "I would have loved your company in there, Kotoha." She combed the long and lean digits of her other hand gently through the effulgent tresses of the sixteen-year-old's now perfectly dry hair. Those silken strands flowed effortlessly past the gaps between her fingers.

"Then why didn't you tell Aizawa-san that?" happily queried the girl in the crimson tee-shirt and denim jeans. Her clothes were washed and laundered while she was taking a bath in the Aizawa Manor.

"She would not have appreciated," her onee-chan intimated. "There is a reason why she insisted on having us in different bathrooms." The answer made the sixteen-year-old giggle behind a raised hand. "I cannot blame her, though," added the seventeen-year-old. "Who knows how long we would have taken if we were in the bath together?" She grinned at her sister. The younger girl turned scarlet.

"I don't know what you're implying," denied Kotoha, whose sanguine complexion told a different story. Then she went on to contradict herself, "Unlike you, I... I don't have any intention of doing anything weird in the bathroom of another person's house." She buried her face in the crook of Shizuka's neck to hide her embarrassment. Probably for having spoken such a blatant lie.

"I would never have known," murmured her teenaged lover. "You looked very disappointed when you knew you could not come in with me." She playfully tugged at a few strands of the Ototachibana first-year's golden hair. "I guessed I misunderstood. Too bad. I was meaning to ask you to join me later this evening." She gave a sigh of feigned regret that seemed so real her sister twitched in the curves of her tight and loving arms.

"I... didn't say that I didn't want to!" Kotoha lifted her head to look into her onee-chan's sapphire eyes, her own amethyst wild with anxiety. "I... only meant to say that I wouldn't be very comfortable..." her voice dropped so low Himeko barely heard what was being said, "doing that with you... there." She quivered visibly in embarrassment and clutched tightly at the clothes on her onee-chan's front.

"I see." Shizuka laughed softly with her lips on Kotoha's forehead.

"You were making fun of me, weren't you?" chided the sixteen-year-old.

"I was," the seventeen-year-old admitted. "Sorry, ne?" She kissed her sister deeply on the lips, drawing from the latter a muffled whimper and nearly melting her into a puddle on the former's lap. When their mouths parted, Himeko's youngest daughter sighed in blessed contentment and would have asked for more had both of them not suddenly realized that they weren't alone. They gave a mild start and reddened rapidly atop the backseat.

 _They forgot that we were here,_ Himeko mused as she glanced sideways and found a Himemiya Chikane focused on driving and unaware of what was going on. _At least they didn't do it in the Manor. If they did, the Aizawa girl would have been antagonized more than she already was._

Her amusement withered and died as she suddenly recalled in deep regret that Oogami Mikoto, a normally unflappable boy who showed up at the wrong place at the wrong time, had taken this turn of event much more badly than his class representative did.

* * *

 _"I am really sorry for how things turned out, Mikoto," Himemiya Himeko apologized to the boy standing at the sliding door that opened to the vast garden of the Aizawa and staring blankly at the lone gazebo being assaulted from a myriad of water bullets lashing downward from a darkened sky. Due to the heavy rain, not much could be glimpsed from within the small structure except for the fact that Shizuka and Kotoha already had their misunderstanding cleared up judging by how the latter had remained cuddled in the former's embrace for the last ten minutes._

 _"It's not your fault, Himeko-obaa-san," the boy stated noncommittally. His androgynous face was no more readable than a rock, the light of agony in his eyes the equivalent of another boy screaming out in anguish. "You can't dictate whom your daughter falls in love with, so please don't blame yourself." Mikoto seemed to have chosen to ignore the fact that both she and her beloved wife had done their best to bring their daughters together, consequently robbing him of the girl he loved._

He's such a nice boy, _she thought._ And he only came here because he was worried about Shizuka. _Guilt stabbed her in her heart._

 _According to Mikoto and his class representative, they happened to come to Mahoroba's sole IMAX Theater to relieve themselves of boredom. Coincidentally, he had found himself waiting in line right behind Aizawa Nanami, who was very upset that_ "some snooty people" _had purchased all the VIP tickets to a certain movie and thereby forced her to settle with a commoner's one. Coincidentally, they were planning to watch the very movie the musical score to which Chikane-chan had composed. Also coincidentally, they had left as soon as they realized that the issue that the movie discussed struck too close to home for comfort. Quite troubled, Mikoto had invited Nanami to dinner, hoping for a companion so that he wouldn't have to suffer by himself. He took his classmate home afterwards and stayed there to talk to her for a while before he excused himself. He was barely out of the Aizawa's estate when Shizuka arrived in her BMW and collapsed into a series of incoherent sobs._

 _He had been there to help the pony-tailed girl comfort Himeko's daughter and never left until the seventeen-year-old had been put to sleep. Even though he considered Shizuka his rival, he was still compelled by his kindness to come back to the Aizawa Manor this morning to see how she was doing and to help her in anyway he could. It was but unfortunate that he had to see this._

 _"Shizuka's okay now," said Mikoto, bitterness barely audible in his words. "There's no need for me to stay. Please don't tell them I was here, obaa-san. It'll only make them uncomfortable." He turned and thrust his hands into his pants' pockets. Even though Himeko suspected that he was clenching them into fists, she still failed to detect any shift of emotions on his face. Aside from the brief moment of shock he had suffered upon finding her and her beloved Chikane-chan at the Manor, his countenance had remained expressionless. He ought to have as much control over the muscles on his face as the Himemiya princess herself._

 _"I'll call Kotoha later to sort everything out later," said the son of her best friends. "And... I'll keep their relationship a secret, so don't you worry." He gave her a quick glance and walked away._

* * *

Gazing at his retreating back, Himeko had hoped that he would soon find another person who would love him as much as he had loved her youngest daughter.

* * *

"I do not think Himeko and I are going to come home until late tonight," Himemiya Chikane said from the driver seat of the silver Mercedes, "so you do not have to wait for us for lunch or dinner, okay?" She was having the vehicle parked on the driveway of their house, her adolescent daughters standing nearby and not quite able to hide the excitement on their face upon hearing her announcement. Her lovely wife, who was seated on the passenger seat, noticed it too, for she was smiling softly and trying not to look directly at the teenagers' faces.

"Where are you going, kaa-san?" inquired the older of the sisters, whose hand was clasped tightly with that of her sweetheart.

"My agency," Chikane answered with a smile. "They have been bugging me for a few days now. They want to know when I am ready for another concert tour. Impatient folks." She chuckled at that.

"Ah," Shizuka said softly, her curiosity relieved. Standing next to her, her newfound girlfriend remained quiet and seemed quite eager to come inside. The sixteen-year-old was evidently conscious of what she was feeling in her heart, seeing how the scarlet color of her complexion was deepening by the heartbeat and how her amethyst eyes would flash toward Chikane's face in what seemed to be guilt.

"Also," she added, "we are going to your great uncle's house afterwards. He just came back there, so we wanted to see how he is doing. I am quite sure he will insist on having we stay for dinner." That was the simple truth. His Mightiness Himemiya Kyou never let his niece and her wife go easily. Not that she minded spending time with them. The elderly man and _his_ wife were ever pleasant company. She would actually appreciate catching up with them now that she and Himeko needed to be away from the house so that their daughters could enjoy the privacy they rarely had.

 _And I have to call someone to soundproof their room too,_ she noted to herself.

"Say hello for him and Kimika-oba-sama for me?" said Shizuka.

"We will." Chikane smiled at her beautiful children. "And you two have fun at home, okay?" She was not even trying to tease them, yet they stiffened where they stood and blushed a sunset. She had to invoke a great deal of her strength to not laugh. "See you tomorrow," she added, thinking to herself that the girls would still be in one of their rooms and keeping each other company at her and Himeko's return. There was virtually no chance that their daughters would leave their bed until the next morning. _If then,_ she noted in amusement.

"See you then," Shizuka said.

The two of them could be seen waving at the Mercedes until they disappeared into the distance.

"Ne, Chikane-chan?" her wife called softly not too long after the car had joined the outermost lane of the Mahoroba highway.

"What is it?" She turned her head and gave her beautiful companion a fond smile.

"Can we stop somewhere before we... head toward the Himemiya Mansion?" Out of the corners of her eyes, she could see that the golden-haired photographer was blushing very hard.

"Where?" she asked curiously.

"Grand Central," her beloved wife answered in a barely audible voice. "I'd... like to stay there for a while." Her amethyst eyes lowered to her lap, where her hands were fidgeting with one another.

"But we made love in that suite for nearly a whole day yesterday," Chikane teased the youthful angel, feeling like blushing herself at the wonderful abandons they experienced in that luxurious chamber. "I thought you had had enough."

"Since when... did the word _'enough'_ apply to us?" Himeko said softly, almost to herself. "And I didn't get to be intimate with you last night because Kotoha was there... I was very happy to talk to her and comfort her and all when she needed me but..." She trailed off, her face redder than ever.

Trying to keep a straight face, Himemiya Chikane swerved the Mercedes out of the highway and parked it on an empty road not too far from the exit. Smiling openly now, the musician reached over and gently drew her bewildered passenger into a deep, ardent kiss.

"You know what, Himeko? Why don't we enjoy the rest of the day at Grand Central and postpone the meeting with the agency until tomorrow?" she suggested in a soft yet quite sultry voice. She made her lovely companion blush. "We can visit Kyou-oji-sama then, too."

"That sounds good," intimated the love of her life, who spent the next several minutes kissing her before managing to reclaim enough of her self-control to let Chikane take the car back to the highway and cruise it toward Downtown.

* * *

"Kotoha," Himemiya Shizuka called in a whispering voice as soon as she locked the door to her lover's room and turned around. About several feet away stood the sixteen-year-old with her hands folded behind her back, her magnificent head tilted to one side in a most adorable manner, and her delicate lips curved into a smile that happened to be the quintessence of innocence and seductiveness. Her precious girlfriend, her adolescent lover, her little sister, and the sunlight of her world. Shizuka's heart threatened to burst every time she thought to herself in joy that the beauty she always thought to be beyond her reach was now hers and hers alone.

"Come over here, Shizuka-chan," invited the beautiful maiden, who was standing next to a long sofa in her room and openly studying Shizuka in such a suggestive yet ever so innocent fashion her amethyst gaze dried Shizuka's throat and ignited a powerful firestorm beneath Shizuka's skin. Although her little sister was usually desirable to the point it took Shizuka a great deal of effort just to hold herself back everyday, the girl was absolutely irresistible now that she had forsaken her self-restraints and brimming with the need for everything Shizuka had.

She quietly crossed the room and put herself in front of the shorter girl, who rose on her toes to give her a kiss that flooded her vessel with warmth and sweetness but steadily drained her strength. She nearly crumbled onto her knees when her little sister's tongue parted her lips and plunged into her mouth, where it spent quite a few moments growing comfortable with the confined moistness and twining her own tongue in a steamy waltz. Afterwards, it slowly but surely drew hers out of its hiding place so her teenaged girlfriend could take it between her cherry petal lips, kiss its tip deeply, lick its blade passionately, and sometimes sucked on its length as hard as she could.

The exquisite flavor inside the fair maiden's mouth nearly unraveled Shizuka's existence, the girl's overwhelming moistness unwired her brain circuits, the wingless angel's delicious warmth boiled her blood, and the younger Himemiya's unrivaled softness pushed her toward the peak. Shizuka's center was now the mouth of a volcano nearing its eruption, her essence molten lava ready to burst from her core.

"Bring me to bed, please?" whispered the little angel. "You're making me feel so weak I can't stand for much longer, Shizuka-chan."

Not needed to be told a second time, Shizuka scooped the love of her life into her arms and carried her to the king-sized bed near the fully drawn curtains. There, she laid Kotoha on the firm mattress and settled on all four atop her curvaceous frame. The sight of her adolescent lover lying beneath her and gazing upward with love brimming in her amethyst eyes was so picturesque, so heartwarming, and so sensual that she could not help but fall victim to a gripping daze.

"Hello there, fair maiden," she whispered after a while. "What could someone as gorgeous as you be doing in this place?"

Her sister humored her, "I'm waiting for someone." Love and mirth rang in her words.

"Who would that be?" Shizuka inquired.

"My adorable sister," answered the girl she cherished. "She's my girlfriend too, by the way." The word was vested with a vast amount of love that could rival the volume of any sea.

"Do you love her?"

"With all my heart and soul. Until my last breath." Kotoha reached her hands upward and slowly drew Shizuka's face down for an open-mouthed kiss.

"What do you like about her?" she asked, her knuckles tracing the line of her sister's jaw.

"A great many things," her first love answered, her cherry petal lips lit by a bashful smile. "I like her clear sapphire eyes because they show the depth of her soul." Her melodious voice grew dreamy as she continued whispering into Shizuka's lips. "I like her face because it's so beautiful I want to spend the rest of my life drawing portraits for her." Suddenly, her shiny eyes glinted in mischief. "I like her lips because they tell me how much she loves me anytime we kiss," she murmured, her voice mirroring her amethyst gems. "And... can you believe where she kissed me with them last night?"

Shizuka's head swam at the memory. Her sapphire gaze traveled further downward and stopped at the region where the two leg panels of her little sister's jeans were joined. Heat flared on her cheeks. Her nose still retained the arresting and addicting fragrance it had greedily drawn in again and again from the beautiful blossom beneath the coarse fabric. Her lips were still lingered upon by the softness and the silkiness of Kotoha's precious petals. She had kissed the little angel's most private place deeply and passionately quite a few hours back, yet the memories had yet to fade. It kept reminding her of how much she loved the intimate contact, of how much she had wanted to extend her tongue and relish the flavor of the gorgeous flower.

"Will you answer me one question?" inquired the youngest of the Himemiya, her lips curved by a playful smile. She continued at a quick nod of Shizuka's head, "Can you guess what a mikan and I have in common?" The other girl was visibly amused.

"I do not think I can," Shizuka confessed.

Smiling now, the sixteen-year-old laced her hands on the nape of Shizuka's neck and gently pulled Shizuka's head down until Shizuka's ear was right next to her delicate mouth. "You have to peel our covers off to eat us." Crystalline chortles rang merrily in the quiet room.

"Naughty you, Kotoha," Shizuka remarked after a fit of laughter and moved on to claim her cute sibling's lips. "You only had to ask me to undress you, you know." Each and every word was punctuated by a wetly audible kiss. Every stress of the sentence was emphasized by Kotoha's appreciative coos.

"Does it matter how I phrased my request as long as I got you to do it anyway?" Her adolescent lover beamed up at her. "And how much longer do you intend to keep me in my clothes, my beautiful onee-chan?" She gave Shizuka a very light and brief kiss that she was sure meant to be a penalty.

Murmuring an apology to her sweet sister, she sat up straight with her knees straddling the latter's legs and proceeded to remove the clothes barring the way to the pristine nude form of the girl she loved. The crimson tee-shirt came off with contemptuous ease and revealed a snowy push-up bra beneath. The cute and appealing piece of lingerie, which Shizuka would have enjoyed looking at another time, quickly departed from her girlfriend's youthful frame and gave way to a pair of ample and soft breasts she had had a chance to touch the previous night. Overwhelmed by an upward burst of concentrated adrenaline, she paused the undressing to lay a hand on one of these perfect orbs. Incredibly aroused and encouraged by the gasp of pleasure that her touch had drawn from the sixteen-year-old, she quietly enjoyed the silkiness of Kotoha's skin, the roundness of her breast, the seductive shade of her areola, and the mouthwatering stiffness of her rosebud.

"Shizuka-chan..." urged the wingless angel, whose voice had adopted a note of plea.

Eager to grant the younger teenager's express wish, Shizuka slid downward. A quick tug undid the button of Kotoha's jeans. A second pulled down the zipper and unleashed a gush of warmth as well as the girl's sharp and fragrantly distinct scent of arousal into the air. A third relieved her adolescent sweetheart of her pants altogether. All she had on her now was a pair of side-tie panties the snowy front of which was stained by a growing moistness.

Throat parched by the sight, Shizuka lowered her mouth to the strings tied together at Kotoha's right hip. A simple pull with her teeth undid the knot easily. Eager to once again admire her girlfriend's precious flower, she did the same with the other set of strings. Afterwards, she closed her teeth carefully around the waistline of the underwear and slowly peeled it down, each and every inch of skin she uncovered revealing more of her ultimate reward. Blood rushed to her cheeks and heated it up rapidly the moment the cutest part of her baby sister came into full view.

She had seen this perfect rose blossom twice, even allowed to touch and kiss it. Yet at the moment Kotoha's maidenhood had never seemed more inviting or attractive.

Slightly intoxicated by the very sight of a completely bare Himemiya Kotoha as well as the sweet fragrance permeating the air she was drawing into her lungs, Shizuka gave her sister's adorable center a gentle kiss, drawing from her a blissful sigh and spreading a light tremor across her delicious body, before she gently took the girl's side-tie panties between her teeth and brought it along as she climbed upward. Surprised, the sixteen-year-old blinked at her and gasped the moment she dropped the piece of moist undergarment so that it fell down and cover her ardent lover's nose and lips. Giving the sunlight of her world no chance to react, Shizuka lowered her mouth onto the former's and kissed her hard through a pair of panties soaked with a fragrant scent. The golden-haired angel's shock lasted for no more than a few seconds. She promptly melted in Shizuka's embrace and into the kiss.

She realized in unfolding wonder that she enjoyed this indirect meeting of their lips very much. The fabric of the panties was so thin it neither impeded the kiss nor prevented her from indulging in the softness and moistness of Kotoha's lips and tongue. It actually made the experience far more enjoyable, for it gave her a chance to relish both the honey of her girlfriend's blossom and the saliva beyond the golden-haired angel's lips. The thorough blend of both delectable flavors, augmented immensely by the sweet and unique fragrance rising from the undergarment's fabric, fanned the flames of their fervor even further and elicited from Kotoha's satisfied but muffled whimpers, a clear indication of how much she reveled in the kisses.

"You're really in no position to call me a naughty girl," the younger Himemiya pointed out in a happy voice that blatantly contradicted her words once the kisses were broken and her underwear cast onto the mattress. Shizuka laughed softly, fully aware that the eternal sunlight of her world would not mind doing what they just did one more time. "And... how much longer are you going to keep your clothes on?" she asked timidly.

"I was thinking that I would like to have you take them off for me," Shizuka whispered to her one and only love. "Will you?"

She did not have to ask twice. Empowered by a vigor rarely seen on her, Himemiya Kotoha placed her hands on Shizuka body and had her clothes fly off of her so quickly the girl must have employed magic.

In one way or another, she found herself lying on her back on the mattress and being gazed down lovingly by an equally nude angel whose lips were graced by a most dazzling smile.

"I love you, Kotoha," was all she managed to whisper.

"I love you too, Shizuka-chan." Her younger sister lowered her mouth onto Shizuka's and gifted her with the most magical moments of her life.

* * *

 _Sunday, June 28th, 8:14 AM._

* * *

"The technicians will be here in a couple of hours," Himemiya Chikane told a finely dressed Himemiya Himeko, a golden-haired woman standing by her side at the door to their house, as soon as she ended her cell phone conversation. "We can leave for my agency and then the Himemiya Mansion once they have arrived and received my signature. For now, we can just settle down and relax."

"That sounds good," remarked her beloved wife, who retrieved the house keys from her purse and unlocked the door. Afterwards, she took Chikane's arms and walked with her inside. "What would you like for breakfast, Chikane-chan?" the photographer inquired sweetly.

"We don't have time for what I want." Chikane laughed softly behind a raised hand as she led the love of her life into the living room. The morning sun was shining brightly beyond the glass panes opening to their impressive garden of the roses.

"We don't?" Himeko gave her a dubious look. "You said we had a couple of hours. What can't I _not_ prepare in that much time?"

"You surely can." Chikane laughed harder. "The problem is that two hours are too short for me to enjoy it." She pulled her youthful companion into a tight hug. "Have you forgotten what my favorite food is already?" she whispered into her ear.

The gorgeous being in her arms immediately turned into a log in the furnace.

"Stop teasing me," she muttered. "Didn't you have enough last night and... earlier this morning?"

 _"Since when does_ 'enough' _apply to us?"_ Chikane quoted, smiling broadly. Her comment heated up her wingless angel even more.

"Seriously," the shorter woman bit one of Chikane's earlobes, "what do you want for breakfast?"

"French toasts and eggs and salads would be wonderful." She told the beauty caught in the curves of her arms. "You naked in bed would be even more so." She laughed softly as she looked down and found a Himemiya Himeko blushing all the way to her ears. Gods, they had been married for years now, yet her wife had never lost any of her innate shyness.

"French toasts and eggs and salads, then," Himeko mumbled in the end. "And don't you think... I don't want... the other thing." She burrowed more deeply into Chikane's embrace. "If we had more time..." She untangled herself from Chikane, her face scarlet. "Why don't you sit down and watch some TV while I cook? No need to get the smell of the kitchen stuck to your hair."

"I do not mind." Chikane took her sweetheart's hand and held it tightly. "I can just take a bath with you later." She winked at the latter, whose complexion deepened even further and betrayed what she was thinking in her pretty head. "Besides, what kind of woman would not like to watch her wife prepare the food for her?" She thought she was getting drunk from the wondrous expression of love dawning on her beloved's face. She offered the Gods a thankful prayer for letting her marry this glorious angel every time she did that.

"Okay then," murmured the photographer, who then led Chikane toward the kitchen.

They stopped upon arrival at the dining room and hearing indistinct voices echoing out from beyond an open door to their left, which led to a much smaller chamber where they put the dryer and the washing machine. Exchanging curious looks, she and her wife came closer to the source of the sounds, subsequently discovering an adorable sight that nearly melted her heart. Himeko's hand tightened around hers at the same time a joyous smile graced the former's lips.

Sitting on the tiled floor in front of the dryer, the quietly humming vertical rotations of which were tumbling the clothes and the white bubbles within, was Himemiya Shizuka. All the girl seemed to have on at the moment was a simple baggy tee-shirt, the loosely cut neckline and hip-length hem of which exposed her shoulders and everything beneath her lower torso to the glorious aura of the morning sun. Cuddled in her tight arms and seated on her thighs was her younger sister, dressed in a near-translucent button shirt with a pair of slender arms tight around the older girl's back and slim bare legs straddling her waist. Neither was aware they were no longer alone, seeing how they devoted all their heart and soul into a very still yet deep and loving kiss. Their eyes were closed, their hair spilling down their backs like a narrow azure stream and a meadow of golden barley beneath the cloudless heavens.

There could be no sight more beautiful or heartwarming than this. Chikane had always lamented the fact that she had only seen Kotoha and Shizuka's first kiss on a photograph, not with her own eyes. Now she hated herself for not bringing a camera to capture this timeless moment.

"Aren't they made for each other?" whispered Himeko in a voice loud enough for Chikane's ears alone. The photographer was hanging on her arm with a face dyed in the colors of happiness.

"Like you and I," she whispered back.

Full to bursting with the joy of knowing that their efforts had finally come to fruition, she quietly took her wife back to the living room, intending to stay there and just enjoy the latter's company until their daughters finished their business inside. She only hoped that they did not intend to carry out in the laundry room what they must have been doing since yesterday morning. She would hate to come back inside and stop them.

Himeko's soft chuckle turned her head. "What amuses you, dear?" she asked, smiling.

"Before learning how Shizuka felt toward Kotoha," her youthful wife explained, "I'd always been worried that the romantic interests they chose wouldn't get along with the rest of the family. Now I don't have to anymore." She gave Chikane a rueful but indescribably adorable look. "Silly, aren't I?"

"Very." She laughed. "Very much so indeed."

"How mean of you." The glorious angel pouted.

"But that is the truth," Chikane teased. "Besides, it is also a side of you that I love, Himeko." She pulled the golden-haired woman into her arms and kissed her hard.

* * *

"I love you so much, Shizuka-chan," Himemiya Kotoha intimated to her princely sister, who was studying her intently with a pair of sapphire eyes aglow with affection and awash with delight. "I love you more than anybody else in the world." She kissed Shizuka again, a little more deeply this time, and earned herself a few soft moans that she happily swallowed down her dry throat. Adorable beyond imagination in her baggy tee-shirt and nothing else, the older girl was spellbindingly fragrant with her own natural scent as well as a day's worth of arousal, a sweet aroma her snowy skin had accumulated during hour after hour of intense and enjoyable lovemaking in bed. She was a pot of honey simmering atop the stove.

"I love you too," Shizuka whispered back and squeezed Kotoha in the toned curves of her arms, "my shining angel."

In her onee-chan's warm and protective embrace, Kotoha discovered true joy, everlasting peace, guaranteed safety, and unending love. There was no other place she would rather be. She would give up everything she ever owned to buy even a transient moment in the arms of the girl she loved.

"I must have done something right in my previous life to be born as your little sister in this one," she murmured, her lips finding the pulse on Shizuka's swan neck and eliciting from her quiet sighs full of pleasure. "I can't imagine falling in love with anyone else," she confessed, her trembling fingertips tracing the allure of the seventeen-year-old's cherry petal lips.

"How about Mikoto?" her sister teased.

She blushed. "Mii-chan doesn't count. What I felt about him never moved beyond friendship."

The beautiful mermaid gave her an odd look. "Then why did you agree to go out with him?"

"Because I'm a coward," she explained. "I couldn't bring myself to reject Mii-chan and break his heart. I accepted his confession because I assumed that he'd eventually see that I'm a boring girl and break up with me on his own accord."

"Wrong move." The seventeen-year-old laughed softly. "Not going to happen any time soon, my little princess." She playfully pinched Kotoha's nose. "There is nothing boring about you."

"You only said so because you love me," she whispered, her heart pounding more quickly at the words. Even now, she still had a hard time believing that the joyous situation she was in was indeed reality. She found it even more difficult to think that she had confessed to her sweet sister, become her girlfriend, and bequeathed her maidenhood to her all in the same day.

"I love you, yes," her onee-chan whispered back, "but I was speaking the truth, too." She quietly undid the two topmost buttons on Kotoha's shirt and peeled the collar down so that the piece of clothing, near-translucent under the light of the sun, ceased to conceal her shoulders and exposed a considerable part of her cleavage. Blushing mildly under the elder Himemiya's affectionate gaze – despite having done all these embarrassing yet wonderful things in bed since yesterday morning, Kotoha had yet learned to control her innate shyness in the presence of the other girl – she realized that the only clothing article she had on at the moment had grown much more stuffy than she cared for.

"See what I mean?" the mermaid continued in the same whispering tone, her fingertips drawing random patterns on the skin of Kotoha's now bare shoulders. Her respiration quickened and her body temperature soared off the roof, telling her how these light and pleasant ministrations as well as the searing warmth radiating from beneath her sister's baggy tee-shirt were turning her on. "How can anyone find boredom anywhere by your side when they are so busy watching you and marveling at how beautiful you are?" She lowered her pretty mouth to the steep valley in the middle of Kotoha's chest. There, she licked and sucked on the sensitive flesh she discovered, making happy coos all the while and raising goosebumps all over Kotoha's half-clothed body and pouring oil into the flame raging along Kotoha's simmering cleft.

"Shizuka-chan..." She placed a soft peck on her lover's forehead and held the latter's dazzling face closer to her heart. "Shizuka -chan..."

"Take off your shirt for me, Kotoha?" her sister whispered with her lips and nose buried between her breasts. "I want to see. I want to look at you so much."

She was more than happy to grant the wish of the beautiful mermaid. Fingertips quivering in the glorious sunlight, she undid the remaining buttons on her own and hurriedly shed the shirt onto the tiled floor, offering her gorgeous onee-chan the full view of her proudly perky breasts, her flat tummy, and the precious treasure nestled at the juncture of her long thighs. Her rosebuds stiffened and her precious pearl pulsed into life, an imperceptible quiver of flesh and sensitive nerves but ever so pleasurable, under the ravenous gaze of Shizuka and in the cool air, deceptively so in the morning but ready to suffuse with heat as soon as the sun grew high enough to plant the kiss of an intense summer upon the earth.

Shizuka's breath caught. Her princely visage shimmered with awe and appreciation. Her sapphire gems, seemingly captured by the contours of the perky breasts not two inches away from her face, warmed Kotoha's face like a flame heating the water in a kettle atop the stove. She had yet to, but somehow she thought she could have the first climax of the day soon if her onee-chan kept studying her like this. It was strange how the older girl had spent a great deal of time watching Kotoha without clothes in bed, mostly after gifting her with the most pleasurable moments of her life, yet never could get enough of the view of Kotoha's nakedness.

Shizuka interrupted Kotoha's train of thoughts by laying a pair of gentle hands on Kotoha's hips and motioned Kotoha to raise her upper frame. Knowing what the seventeen-year-old wanted, she untied her legs from Shizuka's waists, settled down on her knees on the tiled floor, and slowly straightened up so that her breasts hung proudly in front of Shizuka's delighted face.

"If only I could describe how beautiful you are, Kotoha," the mermaid commented briefly before moving in, undoubtedly wanting to bless Kotoha's bosom with a few kisses. Rueful, she placed a hand on the other girl's lips, halted her inward advance, and blushed at the surprise on her lover's face.

"If I don't stop you now, I won't be able to later," she murmured, her cheeks aflame. "Who knows when Hi-kaa-chan and Chi-kaa-chan return? I'd be embarrassed to death if they... caught us. Chi-kaa-chan would never let us hear the end of it." She shivered. Himemiya Chikane did have a penchant for teasing the ones she loved. The more she loved them, the harder she teased.

"I see." Shizuka chuckled.

"Let's wait for the dryer to finish our laundry ne?" Kotoha suggested. "After that, we can go back to bed and enjoy... you know... together." She shyly lowered her amethyst eyes to the floor.

They had come down here early this morning to deposit their dirty clothes, including the bed sheet stained with the product of their lovemaking, into the machines so that they could have fresh clothes ready for tomorrow morning, the beginning of a new school week. They neither intended to stay for long – the high-speed washing machine and the dryer usually didn't take more than ten minutes each to finish their job – nor turned this laundry chamber into the backdrop of their love scene. Had she not pulled herself back in time, she would have melted into a puddle under Shizuka's irresistible mouth and made love to her until tiredness compelled them to stop.

"Sure." The statuesque mermaid smiled at her and reached for the button shirt on the floor. "It is still chilly in the morning." She winked at Kotoha in such a way that she raised a firestorm across Kotoha's already heated face. "I enjoy the view very much... but it is not good for your health."

"No need for that." She sat back down on her onee-chan's thighs, all smooth skin and toned flesh and delicious muscles she had reveled in caressing with every part of her naked body the previous night. "I think... I know how to keep myself... no... both of us warm."

In a surprised yelp released into the cool air by the seventeen-year-old's delicate lips, she lifted the hem of the baggy shirt gracing the other girl's voluptuous frame, exposing her mouthwatering curves, and quickly pulled it over her own head. Beneath the fabric, she was greeted by the delicious gushing warmth of her onee-chan's body heat and the sensuous wonder that was her front. Even the dim light failed to diminish the beauty of the older girl's chest, its firmness and roundness and pertness melded into twinned globes of perfection that were accentuated by a pair of succulent carmine nubs.

"Kotoha..." her sister called, squirming visibly under the loose shirt as she squeezed and kneaded and kissed and licked and bit her way up the older girl's breasts. "Kotoha..."

After a few moments of enjoying her sister's lush body, she carefully eased her head out of the loose neck of the piece of clothing and found herself gazing at a Shizuka whose complexion had deepened into the shade of a sunset and whose breathing was as quick as the wind.

"I love it in here." Kotoha slipped her arms around her sister's slender back and closed her thighs around the latter's hips. Their heaving bosoms met in a steamy kiss.

Sharing a tee-shirt with the gorgeous girl one year her senior was akin to being immersed in a bathtub full of hot water, pleasant and nice. Only that the water wouldn't arouse her every time it stirred against her dew-soaked blossom like Shizuka's tummy did. Only that the water couldn't assume a form that was voluptuous and soft and silken like Shizuka's own. Only that the water never offered her a warmth that seared all the way into her kernel of existence and augmented her happiness with every second that passed.

"Very smart of you, my little angel." The elder Himemiya closed her eyes and claimed Kotoha's lips. Once their mouths had parted, she held Kotoha tightly in the curves of her arms and confined herself to running her hands soothingly up and down Kotoha's now decently covered back.

As she sank more deeply into her sister's embrace and enjoyed in their mutual nakedness, Kotoha buried her face in the crook of Shizuka's neck and took the princeling's succulent pulse between her lips. Eyes closed and muscles relaxed, she licked and sucked on the other Himemiya's tender skin, occasionally grinning happily at the soft gasps she strummed from the latter's vocal cords.

Their moment of bliss was interrupted when the pleasant hums of the high-speed dryer dwindled into quietude. Exchanging rueful looks with her statuesque sister, Kotoha ducked back into the shirt and finally climbed off the mermaid's lap. While the older girl transferred the clothes in the dryer to an empty basket, Kotoha retrieved her button shirt from the floor and put it on.

"Let us go back, Kotoha," her princely sister told her with a smile as shiny as the morning dews on her lips. "There are still so many things I have yet to try with you." She leaned in and nipped at the helix of Kotoha's ear. She made Kotoha blush.

"Looking forward to it," she murmured and walked with the taller girl out of the laundry room.

She froze and Shizuka nearly dropped the basket the moment they entered the living room. On a sofa sat their mothers, Himemiya Chikane and Himeko, properly dressed and reading the same newspaper.

 _When... when did they come back?!_ a voice screamed at the back of Kotoha's head. _Did they see me and Shizuka-chan in there?_ Amethyst eyes dawning on her bare thighs, she suddenly grew conscious of how little clothes she was having on at the moment. Embarrassment stabbed her repeatedly in the gut.

"Let me help you with that, Shizuka." Chikane put down the newspaper and rose elegantly to her feet. Himeko remained seated on the sofa, her face slightly pink and her lips wearing a little smile that was too secretive for Kotoha's comfort.

"It is okay, Chikane-kaa-san!" her sister said, sounding at the verge of panic. "Kotoha can help me." She glanced sideways at Kotoha, looking as though she wanted to take Kotoha's hand and run back to their room. The flimsily clothed mermaid was obviously afraid that she would become the target of the musician's jokes, which was very possible given the state of dress, or rather undress, both of them were in. Kotoha's stomach lurched. Her fear had just come true.

"No can do." The blue-haired queen chuckled softly during her approach. "Himeko wanted to talk to her for a little bit. And there are things I wish to speak to you about, too." Shizuka's complexion paled. "Sit down with your Hi-kaa-chan, Kotoha." Chikane winked at her in quite a mischievous way. "Your sister and I will be in your room when you are done." In a crystalline gust of laughter, she put an arm across her eldest daughter's shoulders and herded the girl gently but firmly toward the hallway leading to Kotoha's room. Her onee-chan's grimace was the last thing she saw before the two of them vanished.

She sighed as she sat down next to her golden-haired mother. _At least I'm left with Hi-kaa-chan. She's not even a tenth as bad as Chi-kaa-chan when it comes to teasing. Hang in there, Shizuka-chan. I'll come inside as soon as I can._ Somehow, she knew it wouldn't help. She would probably end up being made fun of until she exploded in embarrassment, too.

"Did you two eat the food in the fridge?" inquired the photographer, who looked like she was trying her hardest to _not_ comment on Kotoha's near-translucent shirt and barely covered thighs.

"We did," she answered. "It was very good, kaa-chan."

"I'll heat up the leftover for lunch later, then." Himeko smiled softly at her and made her quite grateful that she wasn't the one who was dragged inside with her other mother. It was only then did the older woman's announcement struck her square between her eyes and warmed her face to oven-hot.

"There's..." she stammered, "there's no leftover. I'm sorry!"

The photographer's eyes went wide in shock. "There's none? For real?" She blinked at Kotoha's shy and hesitant nod. "But I put a day and a half's worth of food in the fridge! Since when did you two eat so much?"

She blushed harder and began to fidget with the buttons on her shirt. "Shizuka-chan and I were very hungry," she said in a voice loud enough for the buzzing of a bee, sensing the air she breathed searing the inside of her nostrils and her own blood sublimating her cheeks. "And the food was good... We couldn't really help it... Making love with her consumed a lot of energy so..." Realizing in horror what she could be blabbering about, she gave a loud squeak and clutched at her mouth. Turning her head, she caught a Himeko whose complexion had to be as red as hers.

Silence hung between them for a while and was only broken when the older woman scooted over, draped an arm across her shoulder, and held her close.

"You really reminded me of my first time with your Chi-kaa-chan," the photographer murmured, sounding happy _and_ mightily embarrassed. "Would you tell me how yours was?" She brushed Kotoha's golden tresses.

"Amazing," she confessed, wondering why in the world she was having this conversation with her _mom_. Nevertheless, it gladdened her to be able to speak to Himeko about the most magical moments of her inexperienced life. The older woman had been the person Kotoha came to when a million questions of her own body struck her when she expected them least. The thirty-eight-year-old was probably the only one aside from her sweet sister with whom she could talk about these embarrassing things.

"Shizuka was gentle with you, wasn't she?" The photographer smiled at her. It wasn't a question.

She blushed and nodded. "Often too gentle for my taste," she admitted. "I... had to tell her that I'd love it if she could be a little... rougher." She thought steam was rising from her ears.

Himeko chuckled softly. "So you're that type, ne? So different from me. Don't tell anyone, but I liked it more when Chikane-chan took it slow and gentle," she intimated in a low and bashful voice. She sounded a teenager in love. Kotoha had always known that her mother's spirit was as youthful as her face.

"Do you, kaa-chan?" She laughed softly behind a raised hand.

"Yes." Her mother gave a timid nod and smiled. "And I guess Shizuka was like Chikane-chan in that aspect." The older woman blessed Kotoha's face with the caresses of her kind and warm fingertips. "Your other mother has always considered me even more fragile than a glass vase, so she's always been extra gentle." She chuckled. "Shizuka's always been like that with you too. Aren't they silly?"

"They are!" Kotoha said, laughing.

"That aside, I hope you realize how lucky you are," the golden-haired photographer continued, her voice suddenly serious. "Like Chikane-chan, Shizuka is the faithful and passionate type. She'll never stop loving you, she'll never _think_ of doing anything that can make you sad, and she'll give up her own life to protect yours." She rubbed her forehead on Kotoha's. "I know all of us, especially Shizuka, have been spoiling you silly. And I doubt that your sister would ever try to pressure you. She loves you too much to force you to do something you don't want to do, even if that something's for your own good. So please, Kotoha, be kind and obedient to Shizuka, ne? You won't find another person like her anywhere else. Love her, care for her, and treasure her."

"I understand, kaa-chan," Kotoha said, etching these words into her mind.

"Now that's over with. Tell me, do you have any plan for today?"

Shyness and embarrassment skewered her anew. She shook her head.

"You intended to stay in bed with Shizuka for the rest of the day, didn't you?" Himeko chuckled.

Kotoha nodded.

"Then I have some bad news for you." The photographer ruffled her hair. "Some technicians will arrive soon to," she cleared her throat, "soundproof your room." She lowered her eyes to her lap. "Now that you two have become a couple, your Chi-kaa-chan and I believe you'll need all the privacy you can get."

"Thanks, kaa-chan," Kotoha murmured gratefully, suddenly overcome with a thrill that she and her precious sister now could stay as long as they wanted in bed and be as... loud as they needed to be without fearing that the rest of the family could hear them.

"With that said, I think you and Shizuka should consider going out for a date," the older woman advised. "When you come back in the evening, the remodeling would be over and you can," she cleared her throat again, "settle in right away."

Kotoha gave her mother a rueful look. "Can't we just stay in Shizuka-chan's room instead?"

"But it's next to yours," Himeko pointed out. "The technicians are not going to be quiet." She blushed hotly. "I doubt that you can really... have fun with Shizuka with these horrendous noises drilling endlessly into the room... I should know... We tried..." She trailed off.

Flames raged on Kotoha's cheeks. "I... I see." Silence once again descended upon the living room.

"For now, though," Himeko coughed delicately into her hands, "let's go see how Shizuka and Chikane-chan are doing." Mouth twitching suddenly in obvious amusement, the photographer rose to her feet. "Let's stop your other mother before she teases your sister to death."

Joining the older woman in mirth, Kotoha stood up and walked with the former toward her room.


	6. Night of the Concert

**_CHAPTER SIX: NIGHT OF THE CONCERT._**

* * *

 _Monday, June 29th, 12:01 PM._

* * *

"Iwill see you later, Aizawa," Himemiya Shizuka told the pony-tailed class representative sitting at the desk in front of hers just as she was retrieving a large boxed lunch wrapped in indigo cloth from her school bag. The school bell had rung but a minute ago, signifying the beginning of a half-hour lunch break. Shizuka was more than eager to go down to the second floor, pick up her little sister, and have a peaceful meal with her in the secret garden of Ototachibana, the location of which was revealed to her yesterday by Himemiya Himeko herself. The photographer claimed that since the garden was situated in a deserted corner of the campus and its interior enclosed in a fence and shielded from the eyes of others by rose thickets, it was a perfect place to enjoy intimacy.

"That's a big obentou," assessed her bespectacled classmate. "Twice the size of your usual one at least. Since when did you have such a big appetite?"

"Not just mine," she answered softly. "Kotoha and I are going to share this."

"I see," Aizawa murmured in a noncommittal voice. Her obsidian gems suddenly flickered at a certain spot on Shizuka's throat. Her cheeks immediately went aflame.

She lifted her vacant hand, almost unconsciously, to cover the same spot from her classmate's prying stare. "Don't bother," the other girl said, her comment emphasized by a dismissive wave of her hand. "Everybody in this class saw it." Her tone was wry and bitter.

Face warmed to near meltdown, Shizuka lowered her sapphire eyes to the floor, fully aware that what her class rep had pointed out was truth. Every pair of eyes in this small classroom had quickly latched on the sanguine love-bite on her throat as soon as she walked past the door. Those eyes had been shrouded in various emotions, many of them unkind. While the girls' displayed shock and sheer curiosity and pure envy in some cases, the boys' showed that their owners were being seized by either fits of rage or jealousy. While the sight offered her an exhilarating sense of satisfaction – some of these boys had been pestering her since her first year – it also embarrassed her so much she wanted to dig a hole on the floor and hide in it. It was fortunate that she sat far enough from the lectern to avoid being seen by the teachers. She could not imagine what they would say if they noticed...

And yet, she could not deny that having this hickey on her was a thrill unto itself. As to how it could affect her like a strongest wine or an overdose of aphrodisiac despite not being on her erogenous regions, she did not know. There had been times during lectures where she caught herself caressing the reddish bruise on her skin, idly recalling how it had come into existence while sensing her arousal welling in her heated center and threatening to send her running out of her class just so she could vent her needs. Whenever that happened, she would blush hotly and hope that the hands of the clock on the wall could turn faster so she could return the favor to the person whose amorous gesture had caused this torturous mark.

"I don't mean to intrude into your life, Himemiya," said Aizawa Nanami, whose voice was low and whose obsidian eyes scanned the vicinity to ensure none was eavesdropping. Luckily, most of the class had left the room and the remaining students were too far away to hear a word. "But really, can't you just put a band-aid over it?" Her tone, usually cool and unperturbed, was touched with exasperation.

Shizuka felt herself blush harder. "That was... not what Kotoha wanted..."

Gods. She wished her little angel had considered it a bit more before she did what she did.

* * *

 _Monday, June 29th, 8:32 AM._

* * *

 _"Don't, Kotoha," Himemiya Shizuka whispered helplessly. "Chikane-kaa-san is waiting for us in the car. We have to go... ah...!" Standing with her back leaning on a wall in the now soundproofed room, she was feeling so weak she could barely hold herself upright. Pinning her onto the very same wall was her sweet Kotoha, whose cherry petal lips were seeking hers over and over again._

 _She thought she was soon going to be seized by an inevitable moment of release she always loved to experience, seeing how her taste bud was continuously enraptured by the sweetness beyond her lover's mouth, how her nose was invaded by the natural fragrance rising from her beautiful girlfriend's body, and how her heart threatened to burst from wave after wave of orgasmic pleasure because a small, gentle hand was kneading her heaving bosom through two layers of Ototachibana vest and shirt._

 _"Please stop," she begged breathlessly between the wet and ravenous kisses interlocking their lips. "Kotoha... please...! I beg of you... School is starting soon..." The rest of her protest was muffled when the other teenager slipped a tongue into her mouth and silenced her with the sensuous dance of tongues and lips. With colorful stars erupting across her vision and climactic tremors slithering down her trembling body, she whimpered into her sister's mouth and surrendered to the steamy kisses._

 _She cried out in frustration, however, when Kotoha suddenly halted the rain of kisses and pulled away, her amethyst eyes aglow with a strange light. It looked like amusement, it resembled pleasant surprise, it appeared very close to ruefulness, but it did contain cresting joy. Shizuka held her breath and admired the gorgeous creature standing before her. Gods above standing witness, there existed no other girl on this earth whose seraphic features could be so criminally seductive and whose innocent cuteness could invoke this much desire._

 _"You said you wanted to stop," the wingless angel whispered, "but you don't really mean it. She chortled. A series of crystalline chimes rang quietly in the room. "Look where your hand is." She lowered her amethyst eyes._

 _Following the younger Himemiya's line of sight, Shizuka blushed hard enough for a thousand flames. From only the Gods knew when, her right hand had slipped between their twining bodies and eased its way into the crimson-striped panties of the girl she loved. Its palm now snuggled the luscious blossom nested between Kotoha's slender thighs, warm and moist, and the tip of its middle finger poised to push past the trim angel's folds, velvet unrivaled in taste and richness, just so it could luxuriate in the tightness within._

 _"Sorry!" she apologized in a strangled voice and attempted to withdraw her hand from its sweetly ambrosial sanctuary. She did not succeed. The svelte angel caught her by the wrist in a lightning fast yet frighteningly gentle manner and pushed her hand back inside. Warmth and silkiness and softness sang in glorious hymns on her skin and blessed it with their touches. Heaving a sigh of contentment, she affectionately cupped and squeezed the sixteen-year-old's most personal place. Sometimes she could not imagine how touching another girl could feel this good._

 _"Just for five more minutes," the golden-haired girl whispered in a honeyed dripping voice she always used to speak to Shizuka in bed. Chi-kaa-chan wouldn't mind... and school can wait."_

 _"Why are you giving me such a difficult time in the morning, Kotoha?" she chided fondly, not quite meaning what she said. If anything, she was enjoying this more than she ever wanted to admit._

 _"Why didn't you think about me?" her first love argued, her shy yet sultry tone void of any sting that might be implied by her words. "Why don't you feel sorry for your girlfriend for what she's going to have to go through today?"_

 _"I... do not understand," she whispered, her hand stroking the sunlit angel between her trim legs and playing quiet notes of contentment from her lips._

 _"I won't be able to see you, touch you, or kiss you until lunch break." Kotoha wrapped her arms around Shizuka's neck and held her tight. "I need this," she continued in the same husky tone that only raised Shizuka's full-fledged arousal a little higher toward the peak. "I want something to tide me over until I see you again." She suckled Shizuka's earlobe, weakening her so much she nearly crumbled onto a heap on the floor._

 _She blushed at her sweet sister. "Then... do you want to...?" The words burned her entrails and warmed her own honey pot while she rubbed the golden-haired girl gently at her tight entrance, the mouth of a river that was now dry but could roar into life any minute. "I can help you. It will be quick."_

 _The wingless angel quivered and grew hot as a burning log. The blossom contained within the piece of cute crimson-striped lingerie was a roaring furnace. "It's okay," she answered timidly after a while. "I'm fine with just having you touch me like this... It's going to be frustrating... but it does feel nice in its own way," Kotoha murmured happily. "It'll at least... keep me awake through the World History and Classic Literature classes." She pulled back a little bit to gaze into Shizuka's sapphire eyes. The sixteen-year-old's face was very red. "And it's going to be all the more... rewarding if you keep me hanging on the edge until we come back to our room tonight... don't you think?" She kissed Shizuka's lips. "I'm looking forward to the fun we can have in bed at the end of the day, Shizuka-chan."_

 _"I do too," she whispered breathily. "I cannot wait until we do, Kotoha."_

 _They shared a few more kisses and Shizuka gave the Ototachibana first-year's private treasure a few more loving squeezes before the latter decided that it was time for them to leave._

 _"Go to the car first," her first love suggested. The wingless angel drew Shizuka's hand out from beneath her panties, depriving it of the warmth and moistness._

 _"Why are you not going with me?" she asked, curious._

 _Kotoha blushed even harder. "I... can't," she murmured with her eyes downcast. "I have to wash myself clean first... and then I need to change my underwear too." She rubbed her enflamed face against Shizuka's chest. Her tone was playful and affectionate._

 _"Let me help you, then," Shizuka offered. "I do not want to go down there alone, Kotoha..."_

 _"No...!" Her little sister shook her head, her golden braid stirring in the cool air. "You'll... only make it much more difficult than it has to be." The heat emanating from her cheeks seeped past the Ototachibana uniformed and seared into Shizuka's flesh. "So please, just go on ahead... Apologize to Chi-kaa-chan for me?"_

 _She gave Shizuka one last kiss and pushed her out of the room._

 _"Not that I mind waiting," Himemiya Chikane gave a teasing smile as soon as she climbed into the backseat of the silver Mercedes, "but you two may miss class if you keep... canoodling in your room like this, child. You really need to learn to control yourself." The regal woman laughed softly at that._

 _"I am sorry," she mumbled, trying not to look at her mother. She still remembered the horrible experience yesterday, when the musician cornered her in Kotoha's room and teased her until the other two Himemiya came to her rescue. She_ really _thought she was going to die._

 _Fortunately for her, Himemiya Chikane confined herself to only mischievous smiles until Kotoha emerged from the front door and climbed inside the Mercedes. After that, she gunned the silver sedan down the driveway and maneuvered it away from the house._

 _The rest of the ride was quite peaceful – the youthful woman seldom opened her mouth while driving unless talked to first – with Shizuka and her younger sister enjoyed their silent intimacy on the backseat. The girl one year her junior simply hugged Shizuka's arm tightly and rested her magnificent head on Shizuka's shoulder, her lips wearing a contented smile. Her own mind surfing an ocean of bliss, Shizuka sat back and reveled in of her sweetheart's soothing warmth._

 _"We are there," announced Chikane, who just gracefully pulled the Mercedes to a stop in front of the school gates. "Hurry, you two, or you will be late," she urged._

 _Shizuka was about to open the door on her side when her sister abruptly drew her into a tight hug. "I... almost forgot about this..." She buried her gorgeous face in the crook of Shizuka's neck. Next she knew, the voluptuous angel's lips had already rounded on her tender skin and sucked it into the former's mouth. Seized by a small spasm that lasted for quite a while, she squirmed helplessly on her seat and issued soft involuntary cries that colored the complexion of the pianist. Meanwhile, the youngest of the Himemiya continued her affectionate torture, oblivious to the comfort she was causing her elder sister and the discomfort she was inflicting on her mightily embarrassed parent. When Kotoha finally pulled back, her complexion had become a veil of scarlet. Chikane was staring determinedly at the steering wheel. Her large sapphire eyes were teacups._

 _"What... what was that for?" Shizuka muttered, perplexed._

 _"Just a... precaution, koneko-chan," her young girlfriend answered in a rueful voice. "In case you don't know... I'm possessive and jealous... I don't want anybody else to touch you..." She could have been singing._

 _Their mother chortled in great amusement from the driver's seat._

 _"What does that have to do with this?" Shizuka demanded wryly, quite amused and curious._

 _"It marked you as mine," Kotoha whispered, one of her adorable fingers caressing the bruise she just caused on Shizuka's skin. "Mine and only mine. It'll tell the people who still think they have a chance with you that... you're already taken..." Her voice grew lower... and a hundred times sweeter as she went on. "I've seen how Aizawa-san watched you... and I'm sure there are others like her in your class too... I... don't want them to look at you that way anymore..."_

 _Shizuka laughed quietly and tightened her arms around her beloved sibling._

 _"In that case, should I not put something on you, too?" she opined._

 _"No!" the shorter girl panicked. "It'll be bad if we both have it!" Amethyst eyes regarded her shyly. "We'll be in big trouble if they so much as think you're dating your little sister, Shizuka-chan..." Her radiant face flushed deeply at the words she spoke._

 _"Just kidding," Shizuka said, thinking that she just heard the cutest thing in the world. "And we should go. It is time." She pushed the car door open, quickly circled the Mercedes, and opened the other door for her sweetheart._

 _"I will pick you up later, naughty children." The world-renowned musician winked at them from a rolled-down window. "Behave yourself." She drove off._

 _"Shall we go, my beautiful princess?" Shizuka offered an arm to the girl she loved._

 _"Gladly, fair prince," the sixteen-year-old took her arm and climbed the stone steps with her in silence. Every time she looked up at Shizuka's throat, she would blush. It took Shizuka all of her strength to refrain from pulling her adolescent lover into a passionate kiss._

 _"By the way," she whispered in a voice low enough for her sister's ears alone. "I did not wash my hand."_

 _Kotoha missed a step. She stared at Shizuka, a crimson color marring her face._

 _"I need something to keep me on the edge and remind me of you, too."_

 _"Bad Shizuka-chan," the sylphine angel declared with a voice that betrayed the joy blossoming in her heart. "Bad Shizuka -chan," she repeated, this time with love accentuating her melodious tone._

 _Shizuka laughed._

* * *

"Earth to Himemiya, hey!" A loud snap of the class rep's fingers jerked Shizuka out of her trance.

"Sorry," she murmured ruefully. As far as she was concerned, this could be the first time she spaced out in class. Her little sister was a bad influence indeed, she mused. Her head swam and her heart warmed at the endearing image of Kotoha in her mind. She was the sun in the dead of winter. She was a burning hearth in a cold rainy day.

"One last question before you fly away, lovebird," said Aizawa Nanami, whose voice was quite strained. "What's with your hand?" Curiosity furrowed her thin eyebrows.

Startled by the direct question, Shizuka nearly hid her right hand behind her back. "Nothing," she said defensively. "Why do you ask?" She swallowed hard at the expression of disbelief on Aizawa's face.

 _"Why?"_ the pony-tailed girl repeated dryly. "I wish I had a camera to show you how you _loved_ to rub your nose on the palm of your hand whenever you weren't jotting down notes or caressing that... bruise on your throat." Her eyes narrowed. "You looked like someone who was sniffing perfume in a department store. And you grinned stupidly at your hand most of the times too, in case you didn't know. Creepy, by the way."

Shizuka suddenly fell under a terrible urge to storm out of the classroom to avoid the class rep's intense gaze. Her face was on fire, her mouth clamped shut, her throat parched like a land that had not seen rain for decades. Gods, but this was embarrassing.

"Well?" Aizawa Nanami rapped her fingers on her desk. Her mouth curved into a twisted smile. "I am not going to let you go anywhere if you don't give me a satisfactory explanation." In horror, Shizuka came to the conclusion that her friend was not even remotely interested in getting the answer. The girl, wicked as she was, must have realized that Shizuka was very uncomfortable being interrogated about this particular subject. She was simply trying to give Shizuka a hard time, most likely because Shizuka had chosen her sister to be a romantic interest instead. The bad thing was that Aizawa was doing it in a playful manner. Had the pony-tailed girl done it out of malice, Shizuka would never have hesitated to walk away.

"I do not think you want to know, class rep," she said weakly. "It is rather... personal."

"I don't care," the violinist announced. "Spill or stay here and eat lunch with me."

"Oh come on!" Shizuka considered falling to her knees and begging for forgiveness. She did not want to say the truth – it would embarrass her to death to admit that she could not stop taking in the invigorating aroma lingering on her hand because every breath she drew into her lungs conjured the vivid feel of her sweetheart's lush flower in her mind, somewhat lessening the terrible crave for her sylphine angel's presence – but at the same time, she did not want to lie to such an important friend. Especially when that same friend had been there for her in her darkest hour.

"No." Her classmate cackled.

"That's enough, Aizawa," Oogami Mikoto's voice spoke coolly on top of their heads. "Leave her be, will you?" He grabbed the class rep by the wrist and gently pulled the violinist to her feet. "Come have lunch with me in the cafeteria. My treat." The beautiful androgyne dragged his victim, who was scowling darkly and demanding that he stopped manhandling her immediately, toward the door to the classroom. Just before he stepped past it, he turned his head and gave Shizuka a soft smile tinted by sadness. Then the two of them were gone.

* * *

 _Monday, June 29th, 6:45 PM._

* * *

Although actually seated still on a high-backed chair in the brightly-lit dining room, Himemiya Chikane was drifting aimlessly in an ocean of family happiness. Her sapphire eyes gazing forward and reaching all the way to the kitchen, from where the mouthwatering smells of food were wafting out in successive waves, she saw two other Himemiya, each wearing an apron and busy with her own tasks. The older of the two, refulgent hair flowing smoothly to her slim waist like a stream of liquid sunlight, was Himemiya Himeko, Chikane's faithful wife. The younger girl, equally luminous golden hair worked into a braid at her back, was Himemiya Kotoha, the precious spark of life Chikane had carried for more than nine months in her womb.

"Careful, Kotoha," cautioned the beautiful photographer. "Just a bit more corn starch will suffice. Yes, just like that." Pleased, she turned her attention back to slicing up various kinds of vegetable and decorating them on the dishes she had by her side, pausing often to eye the simmering miso soup.

A half hour ago, the sixteen-year-old suddenly came into the kitchen and offered to aid her other mother in preparing the family meal. Quite amused, Chikane and her beloved companion had assented, knowing full well that _a family dinner_ was the last thing on the girl's mind. All she wanted to do was to make the foods that her absent girlfriend liked best. The lucky person, who used to suffer in silence because she did not dare confess her feelings to the girl she loved, happened to be Himemiya Shizuka, elder sister to the child who was frantically making sure that the dishes she were preparing, completely unrelated to what Himeko had planned beforehand, would suit her onee-chan's tastes.

Chikane chuckled softly. Now that Kotoha had discovered that her precious sibling was her one true love, she did not really care about her mothers anymore. Oh sure, she adored and respected them like any dutiful daughter would, but Chikane suspected that their positions in the child's favorite list were far lower than that of her elder sister, whose mere presence or absence dominated her adolescent mind and soul and heart. Her passionate nature was just like Himeko's in that aspect. Once she loved, she did so with every fiber of her existence, every breath in her body, and every drop of blood circulating in her veins.

Chikane felt very warm inside. Ever since learning that Shizuka had fallen for a girl of the same flesh and blood, she had been afraid that the child's happiness was going to be forever ruined. And yet, that tragedy never happened and her eldest daughter's torments had been properly compensated.

Due to Chikane and Himeko's timely intervention, Kotoha grew to understand that the feelings she harbored toward her sister were not what she thought it was. Within one week, sixteen years of sisterly affections were recast in a different light and reborn into true love. Chikane's fear for the sake of her eldest daughter was neatly eviscerated, their family whole once more. Other parents might blow a gasket from the mere _possibility_ that their daughters were engaged in a romantic relationship, but she suspected that deep down, they would envy the unending happiness the benevolent Immortals of Heaven had granted Chikane's modest family. She pitied those holier-than-thou folks. They had not a clue that blindly following a set of moral codes written by society yet refusing to seek counsel from their hearts only bound and constricted to death what little joy they might find in life.

A flicker at the edge of her vision turned her head. Standing at the entrance to the dining room now was a Himemiya Shizuka clad in Ototachibana uniform and quite intrigued as to what had given birth to the wonderful smells scenting the air she breathed. The absence of the school bag in her hand suggested that the girl had come back to her room first. The emptiness inside, where she had spent the better part of her weekend celebrating the sweet love she shared with her sister, must have brought her here in the end.

Smiling, Chikane laid a finger across her lips in a hushing gesture and motioned her daughter to come over to her side with her vacant hand. Although curious as to what her mother could be planning, Shizuka did. As soon as she circled the dining table and caught sight of what was going on in the kitchen, her youthful face was basked in a rosy glow of pure affection and genuine happiness. Eyes moist with unshed tears, the teenager seemed ready to melt into a puddle where she stood.

Chikane soundlessly rose from her chair and put a slender arm across her daughter's shoulders. Not really caring whether the smells were going to stick in her simple tee-shirt and bleached jeans and long hair, she led Shizuka into the kitchen, musing to herself that she was acting like a father who was taking his son to see their precious wives. The thought humored her quite a bit.

Himeko noticed their entrance first, so she smiled and waved to them in her cute and cheerful way. She would have said something too, had Chikane not shaken her head slightly and gestured the love of her life to keep quiet. Smiling more broadly but also ruefully now, the photographer stepped back and watched as Shizuka approached the only person in this small room who diligently working on the sweet and sour shrimp sauce – one of her sister's personal favorites – while having no clue what was going on.

"Put down the sauce pan, Kotoha," instructed the photographer, who then added in a voice soaked with hilarity at the puzzlement unfolding on her youngest daughter's face, "Just put it down, please? Yes, that would do. Thanks, kiddo. It's rather... dangerous to hold it at the moment. She may get hurt."

"Who, kaa-chan?" the sixteen-year-old asked in confusion as her golden-haired mother walked away from the polished granite countertop, on which armies of pans and dishes and cooking ingredients staged a chaotic battlefield.

"Me, Kotoha." Shizuka slipped her arms around her sister's waist from behind and hugged her tightly. "Himeko-kaa-san is afraid you would whack it on me in shock."

The adolescent in her embrace stiffened to a splinter's worth but thawed like ice under the summer sun as soon as she turned and found her onee-chan gazing down at her and smiling a sweet smile that would warm the heart of the coldest person on earth. The younger girl's complexion immediately turned a shade of scarlet, her mouth working frantically but issuing not a sound. Yet her amethyst gems were ablaze with the same intense light of adoration that Chikane saw in Himeko's eyes every time she looked.

Chortling softly at her younger sister's flustered expression, Shizuka gave her mothers a bashful fleeting glance before she closed her eyes and engulfed Kotoha's lips. Making some choking sounds in her throat, the other teenager tensed visibly and resisted, apparently out of the shyness caused by the presence of her parents, by trying to push the azure-haired girl off of her. No more than a few seconds had passed when Chikane's youngest daughter softened under the tender attention being lavished on her mouth. In the next instant, the child rose on her toes, put her arms around the older girl's neck, and melted into the kiss.

Glancing sideways at her gorgeous wife, Chikane spotted a sanguine complexion that mirrored the heat billowing on her own cheeks.

"Now I know why Otoha-san always winced when she caught us kissing in the house, Chikane-chan," intimated her first love, slipping her arms around one of Chikane's. The youthful woman's comment made Chikane laugh.

She was relieved to see that her daughters had pulled apart – she was afraid that the kiss was going to blow out of proportions and into something she would not want to see – and amused to realize that the girls had turned this small kitchen into their two-person world. Or their _bedroom_. As far as she could tell, the fruits of her and Himeko's labor had completely filtered them out of their lovesick minds.

"Hey there, sweet little one." Visage basking in euphoric radiance, the seventeen-year-old cupped her adolescent girlfriend's face with her hands and caressed them while gazing fervently into the latter's eyes. "Missed me?" She kissed her again, briefly this time, but in a manner no less passionate. Kotoha's rapt countenance suggested her toes were curling inside her slippers and knees about to give way.

"I missed you more than I could say, Shizuka-chan..." The youngest member of the Himemiya family blushed and turned her crimson face to one side, not quite in time to hide the joyous smile curving her lips. She quietly leaned her front on her sister's, her hands finding and stroking the small of the latter's back.

Chikane could not be sure, but she was under the impression that she was seeing the images of her and Himeko during the early days of their marriage, when they had yet learned to curb the intimacy they showered each other where others could see. _Oh the things we did when we were young..._ The fond memories of their unrestrained behaviors warmed Chikane's body, renewing her needs for her sweetheart even though they had spent quite a few hours keeping each other company in the waning light of the afternoon. It was one thing that had never changed during their married life. Regardless of how many times they made love since their first night together at Himeko's apartment, the flames of their passions toward one another had yet been diminished by the flow of time. Blushing slightly, she turned and kissed her wife on the forehead. _After dinner, once we have retreated to our bedroom, surely..._

The chirping voices of her daughters, immersed in their own happiness as they were, ended her train of thoughts.

"I missed you too," intimated the seventeen-year-old, who rubbed noses with the girl she loved.

"You said you had to stay for practice," the sixteen-year-old murmured in a demure tone. "Why are you home so early?" She winced. "Not that I don't want you to! I... am just curious."

"I did say that," Shizuka confirmed, grinning. "But the sensei had to leave early, so she let us go."

"Who took you home?"

"Mikoto gave me a ride," the azure-haired girl answered. "Aizawa offered to drive me back on her limousine too, but I knew you would be jealous..." she paused to rub her little sister's nose with a fingertip, making the latter color even more deeply than she already did, "so I declined."

The slender digit trailed downward to lay its gentle length across the younger girl's lips. Kotoha only hesitated for a split second before she took its tip into her mouth and sucked on it in such a seductive manner that made Chikane blush. Gods, if she had always thought listening to a conversation between the children was akin to eavesdropping on them speaking in private, this amounted to peeping on them when they were making love.

 _This is it,_ she thought in distress. _They are out of here. Right now._

"Why didn't you call to let me know?" inquired her youngest daughter in a voice unsuitable to be heard anywhere except on a bed. She rubbed her face, every feature on which boasted an innocence seldom seen on other girls her age, on her teenaged onee-chan's ample chest. For some reason, the golden-haired adolescent trembled within the curves of her sister's tender arms. "For once, I'd like to learn... how one feels when she greets her wife at the door after a long day at work..."

If someone told Shizuka that she had been honored with the World Music Award, one of her few lifelong dreams aside from receiving her sister's love, Chikane doubted her eldest daughter would look half as overjoyed as she was now.

"I will call next time, okay?" the aspiring musician promised. "Would that make you happy, my gorgeous lady wife?"

"Yes it would, Shizuka-chan..." Kotoha rose on her toes once more.

Chikane cleared her throat loudly and reminded her children that they were not alone. Startled, the two immediately pulled apart, faces redder than the tomato slices that Himeko had been working on.

"I never thought I had to say this one day to my daughters but..." Chikane said, "why don't you two get a room?" She grinned wickedly at the children, who seemed to be wishing that they were invisible. "Leave everything here to us and go play with your onee-chan, Kotoha." She strode forward, slipped her right arm around the blue-haired girl's waist and her left around the sixteen-year-old's, and herded them toward the kitchen door. Himeko heaved a sigh of relief.

"But the food I was preparing...!" Kotoha protested.

"I will finish it for you, kiddo," the photographer chimed in. "It's almost done anyway!"

"And so it is decided," Chikane said firmly, finding herself and her daughters at the door step to the kitchen. She could not see it, but she knew for sure her eyes were gleaming with finality, for the two girls swallowed and backed off. She rewarded herself with a satisfied grin. "You two have fun, but not _too much_ fun, okay?" she warned half-jokingly. "I expect you at the dining table in forty-five minutes. If not... I will open your door with my master key and drag you down here regardless of what state of dress _or undress_ you are in. Need I be clearer?"

"No, kaa-san!" Shizuka squeaked.

"No, kaa-chan!" echoed Kotoha, who hastily untied her apron, embroidered by Himeko herself with a sun and a crescent moon at the front, and handed it back.

Chikane ruffled their hair in turn, smiled at them in a mischievous kind of fondness, and winked at them meaningfully before she closed the door and locked it into place.

"I thought Kotoha was going to pin Shizuka onto the floor, right in front of us." Her wife giggled. "Good thing you banished them." Himeko stepped closer, threaded her fingers with those of Chikane, and pinned her hands on either side of her head on the kitchen door.

Chikane laughed and let herself be thoroughly kissed by the light of her world.

"What Kotoha said reminded me of how we used to be shortly after we moved into this house," the wingless angel whispered once their mouths had parted. "Do you remember?"

"Yes," Chikane whispered back. "You were sitting at the porch to greet me when I came home every evening." She could clearly recall the first time she pulled her car into the driveway and saw her wife rising from a stone step. Painted by forlornness and joy, Himeko's face always melted Chikane inside out and cleansed her fatigue.

"And sometimes when you missed me enough," she reminisced, "you would pull me down onto the floor as soon as we went inside." She nipped at the nose of her wife, who was blushing furiously at her words. "You would nearly rip my clothes off... and you would make love to me until you were satisfied. You could not even wait until we got to our bedroom. You sex-craved woman." She laughed.

"You enjoyed it just as much," Himeko shyly pointed out. "You never resisted me."

"Who could?" Chikane claimed her beautiful partner's luscious lips. "I am starved, Himeko," she announced afterwards

"So?" The golden-haired woman lowered her amethyst eyes. She blushed a sunset, however, when her gaze dawned upon the heated juncture of Chikane's jeans-clad thighs.

"Can I eat you now?" she whispered into her sweetheart's ears, her arms gently rocking her wife's body. She was not serious but Gods, she wished she could be.

"You... chased the children out just for this?" Himeko thumped a fist on her chest. It did not sting. "Naughty you." She looked up at her. "But no, Chikane-chan, you can't No matter how much I want you to right now. At least wait until after dinner," she murmured. "I'll be your desert then." She tugged at a few strands of Chikane's hair. "You can eat me as many times as you want, ne.?"

"Is that a promise?" Chikane laughed softly and pulled the sunlight of her world even closer.

"A promise." The photographer kissed her.

She was not really being fair when she chided her children mentally for not being able to control their urges. Having lived under the same roof with Himeko for nineteen years now, she still barely could.

* * *

"Don't go yet, Shizuka, Kotoha," Himemiya Himeko called. She had just finished washing the dishes with the help of her daughters, who were quite eager to go back to their room. "Sit down at the dining table with Chikane-chan, won't you? There's something we want to ask you." She gave them a smile.

After exchanging curious looks, the teenagers gave a nod each and joined their other mother at the dining table. Taking off the apron and hanging it on a peck on the wall, Himeko walked out of the kitchen and sat down next to the moonlight of her world. Gorgeous and regal even in simple tee-shirt and jeans, the musician slipped a hand around one of Himeko's and held it firmly atop her lap. She suspected that her daughters were doing the exact same thing.

"What is it that you want to ask us, kaa-san?" Shizuka asked first.

"An important thing," the pianist announced. "We would like to know if you are okay with flying to Tokyo and visit your grandparents with us this weekend." She nodded and continued at the identical surprised expressions on the girls' faces. "And yes, that means we want to inform Aoki and Sanae of your relationship." The elderly couple had purchased a mansion in the wealthiest area of the capital upon their retirement and was now spending their old age by each other's side, at peace and untroubled by the rest of the world. The latest visit Himeko's family paid them was nearly four months ago, during a long weekend near the end of February. Himemiya Aoki and Sanae were as overjoyed as always to see their daughter, their daughter-in-law, and their grandchildren. The elderly couple, quite healthy for people their age, was very disappointed when the time came for the family to go back.

Surprise departed, leaving the stage for apprehension and fear. Their complexions paled a little.

"Don't worry," Himeko said in her gentlest voice. "We aren't saying that you _had_ to go."

Shizuka and Kotoha heaved a sigh of relief.

It was the younger of the Himemiya siblings who spoke first. "What do you think Shizuka-chan and I should do, kaa-chan?" She addressed her question, timidly voiced, to both Himeko and Chikane.

"You should go," the blue-haired woman opined. "There is no harm in telling them everything."

"But..." their eldest daughter hesitated, "we do not know how they would react... or what they would do." She turned and looked at her younger sister, who must have shared the same thought.

"We actually do." The blue-haired princess gave the children an indulgent smile. They stared back at her, perplexed. "Do you recall our most recent visit to their mansion?" Smiling softly, she continued at a hesitant nod from her precious daughters. "Two days following our arrival, Aoki and Sanae pulled me and Himeko aside for a little chat." Their daughters blinked, a little uneasy at the gleam of amusement in their regal mother's eyes. "Can you guess why?"

They shook their heads.

Himeko allowed herself a smile. By the time of the visit, the older of the Himemiya siblings had already decided to distance herself from the younger, who in turn became crestfallen because her sister no longer paid any attention to her. Even though they both suffered in silence and remained oblivious to one another's anguish, their agony could never be missed by people who cared for them.

* * *

 _Four months ago._

* * *

 _"Thank you, Dad," Himemiya Himeko murmured as she received an ornate cup of tea from her father-in-law. Sixty-year-old last December, the elderly man managed to keep all of his hair, now as white as snow in Christmas, and never bothered to have it dyed black like many men who saw only signs of old age and the destruction of youth in their hair instead of wisdom. His baby face still retained its power to defy time, seeing how it made him look like a man in his early thirties. There was not a single wrinkle at the corners of his dark eyes or on his high forehead. Insistent on healthy eating habits and proper exercising as he was, Himemiya Aoki was going to enjoy a very long life indeed._

 _"This smells very nice," Himeko praised honestly. Although the black color of the content of her cup didn't look exactly appealing, the sweet aroma billowing from its calm surface made up entirely for its lack of attractiveness. She gingerly took a small sip and was immediately held captive by its unique flavor. "It's really good!" she exclaimed._

 _Her father-in-law nodded in pride and satisfaction, reclined against his fireside armchair, and sampled the content of his own cup. Her mother-in-law never touched hers due to the fear that it was going to deprive her of sleep later in the evening. Being quite a good-looking woman, Himemiya Sanae treasured her beauty as much as her own life. Thanks to the same youth-preserving steps that her husband took as well as her cosmetics, she never looked a day beyond forty. She still received interested looks from men ten years her junior when walking the street._

 _"I am not going to beat around the bush, Chikane, Himeko," announced the retired C.O.O. of Himemiya International. "I hope you will not, either. Will you both tell this old man what happened to his granddaughters?"_

 _Himeko exchanged rueful looks with her wife._

 _"When did you notice?" Chikane-chan said, putting down her cup onto the table._

 _"As soon as I saw them on my doorstep," the elderly man scoffed. "They looked like they had just failed all of their final exams." Sanae gave a concurrent nod._

 _"Why did you wait until now to ask us?" the musician said, amused._

 _It was the retired legal counsel who answered her. "Because we wanted to observe them a little more before we jumped to any sort of conclusion. Suffice to say, we were alarmed." She gave her head a slight shake. "I hope you are not going to deny that there_ is _something wrong. Shizuka confined herself in bed all day and never showed her face unless dragged out of her room by force. Kotoha always looked like she was ready to bawl her eyes out. I don't recall them behaving this way last they visited."_

 _Himeko scratched her cheek. "Kotoha was only sad because Shizuka wasn't staying by her side as often as she used to be," she said carefully. "The kid's always adored her onee-chan, you know."_

 _"Why is Shizuka not chummy with her sister anymore?" Himemiya Aoki pressed, appearing a little troubled. "Last I checked, they were... inseparable." Himeko blinked. She had an inkling that the man had meant to say something else but changed his mind before he opened his mouth and spoke._

 _"That we cannot say."_ _Her faithful companion smiled._

That was a good line, _Himeko assessed. It could either mean that she did not know, or that she was not willing to discuss the issue._

 _"Oh please." Sanae gave a soft, silvery laugh. "We all knew perfectly well that our little Shizuka acted in such a peculiar manner only because her sister got a boyfriend." Aoki gave her a look._

 _Himeko choked on her Oolong tea. What her mother-in-law said struck too close to home for her comfort. When she turned her head, she saw that her wife had taken the comment as calmly as sunshine. Legs crossed elegantly and back straight against the high back of her armchair, the regal princess remained unperturbed._

 _"Yes, Kotoha told me a boy confessed to her recently and she agreed to go out with him," the older woman said matter-of-factly. "She did not sound awfully happy about it though, mind you."_

 _"Maybe it is the reason, then," proposed the pianist, her sapphire eyes tracing the slopes of her steepled fingers. "Maybe Shizuka was just trying to give Kotoha some space so that she could date whomever she wanted." Although her voice was perfectly calm, Himeko knew that the moonlight of her world was in one of her mischievous fits. She was curious, though. She saw no reason why her wife was playing word games with her parents._

 _"Oh come on." Aoki threw up his hands. "Stop playing coy with us. We are serious here."_

 _"Just answer me one thing," the former legal adviser asked. "Does Kotoha know Shizuka has feelings for her?" Comprehension suddenly lit her wrinkle-free visage. "How silly of me!" she continued in the same wondering tone. "She must not have! If she did, she would never have accepted a confession from anyone else."_

 _Himeko's breath caught. Her heart scrambled up her throat._ They knew! _It struck her square between her eyes._ That had to be why they thought Kotoha getting a boyfriend upset Shizuka!

 _"Of course not."_ _Chikane-chan shook her magnificent head. "Shizuka does not want her to know. And you are taking the news much better than I thought. You do not seem to_ object _to the fact that a granddaughter of yours is in love with the other." She sounded amused. The Himemiya Clan members had always been famous for their blind insistence on following society's unwritten moral code._

 _"Why would we?" The retired Chief Operation Officer gave a loud derisive snort. "Shizuka is our granddaughter. We love her so much we only wish her to be happy for the rest of her life."_

 _Himeko heaved a humongous sigh of relief. Gods, but she never expected her parents-in-law to be so understanding. She thought that they would have a heart-attack the moment they learned the truth._

 _"When did you learn?" the princess asked. "That Shizuka has fallen for Kotoha, I mean."_

 _"We always thought that the way Shizuka behaved in Kotoha's presence was a tad_ unusual _since their childhood," Sanae replied. "That interesting photograph aside," she shot Himeko a meaningful look, "your father and I have been under the impression that our eldest grandkid was..._ unhealthilyfascinated _with our youngest one."_

 _"Obsessed"_ describes it much better, Mom, _she mused._

 _"Troubled we might have been, we managed to convince ourselves that the child only harbored an intense sisterly love toward Kotoha. We grew less sure every time we saw them. We were completely disabused of that when you visited us during last year's summer vacation." Sanae propped her small chin on a pair of interlaced hands. Despite having noticed Himeko and her wife's puzzled expression, Himemiya Aoki smiled softly where he sat and decided to keep quiet. "There was this one evening when Chikane took you out to a nearby mall. You intended to bring the kids along, but Kotoha said that she would like to stay home instead. Expectedly, Shizuka refused to leave her sister's side."_

 _"I assume that something_ interesting _happened when we were away," ventured the moonlight of Himeko's world._

 _"Yes," the retired legal counsel confirmed. "The kids were watching TV in the living room most of the time you were gone. Aoki and I were out in the garden talking and taking our time enjoying the night air. I looked into the living room by happenstance once and saw Kotoha sleeping alone on a sofa. She had been rather drowsy since you left for some reason." Himemiya Aoki suddenly coughed behind a raised hand and took up a serious study of the carpet. "A little while later, Shizuka came back with some sandwiches." The woman flushed slightly, giving Himeko a vague idea of what could have transpired._

 _"I thought she was going to wake her sister," intimated Sanae. "She instead stood silently in front of the sofa for a few moments before she sat down on the floor and started to... touch Kotoha in a way that was not exactly sisterly." The color on her cheeks deepened as she shifted her obsidian gaze toward her biological daughter. "I would not go into details... but it is necessary to say that she reminded us of you when you first brought Himeko to the Ichihana Diner. Only then could we be certain that she was in love."_

 _Himeko turned to her beautiful wife and saw that a knowing smile was adorning her lips. Her eyes seemed to be shining._

 _"To tell you the truth," spoke Himemiya Aoki, "neither Sanae nor I was surprised or angry like others would expect us to. I guess it was because we spent more than a dozen years observing these... incremental changes. We were concerned for Shizuka's happiness, but we soon realized that it was but needless worries. Although she herself might not know, we believe Kotoha loves Shizuka as much. After all, she in her childhood always liked to tell us that she was going to marry her sister."_

 _"Imagine then how shocked we were upon learning that she had agreed to go out with a boy instead!" Sanae said, her voice mirroring her words._

 _"Kotoha's just confused, I think," Himeko said._

 _"Himeko and I once had a discussion about this issue," disclosed Chikane-chan. "We decided that it was best at the moment to only observe the kids. If the Gods were willing, Kotoha would realize who it is she loves. And should we believe that the situation is dire..."_

 _"We're going to intervene and lend a helping hand," Himeko finished. "We have no intention of sitting back and watching Shizuka break her own heart."_

 _The firm nods from Himemiya Aoki and Sanae sealed the conversation._

* * *

"And that was what your grandparents thought about you two," her sweetheart concluded.

"So they knew," the seventeen-year-old mumbled, red-faced.

"And they had no objection to it," Himeko added, smiling fondly. "In fact, Aoki and Sanae are going to be overjoyed once they learn you have become a couple. Chikane-chan and I have yet to inform them of the change in your relationship. We intend to let them hear it from you."

Equally flushed, the sixteen-year-old turned to her onee-chan and shared with her a joyous smile.

"We will go with you then, kaa-san," the azure-haired teenager assented in a happy voice.

Himeko smiled. When her daughters had a chance to speak to their grandparents, they were going to learn that there was a prize for telling the truth.

* * *

"What is it, Kotoha?" Himemiya Shizuka murmured quietly into her sister's mouth the moment she heard the latter issued a sound too soft and too breathless for her to decipher its meaning. "I cannot hear you." On her side and completely unclothed, she continued working her hand on her lover's weakest place, applying gentle squeezes and amorous strokes. Equally nude was Himemiya Kotoha, who was supine on the mattress with her magnificent head resting on Shizuka's arm and her lithesome thighs spread wide, allowing Shizuka all the access she needed. The younger girl was letting out frantic and ragged breaths, her crimson-red and sweaty frame ravaged by tremors rippling outwardly from the juncture of her thighs. She was close.

No meaningful words came out from the golden-haired angel's delicate mouth. Only incoherent gasps and whimpers that portrayed the physical delights surging in her nerves. The quicker the movements of Shizuka's hand and deft fingers grow, the more frequently the younger girl trembled and the higher her gorgeous body arched. When the waves of pleasure finally crested and crashed, Kotoha's deliciously curvaceous frame froze rigid the same moment a throaty cried gained voice in the sound-proofed room. Quite a few seconds later, the gorgeous sixteen-year-old softened into a puddle in Shizuka's embrace and hurriedly tried to catch her breath. The afterglow of satisfaction enveloping Kotoha's face rendered it almost too dazzling to look at. The gleam of both spiritual and physical satisfaction in her amethyst eyes could very well compare to the sparkling stars on high.

"I was asking you to slow down," whispered the Ototachibana first-year. "I said I wanted to enjoy it a little longer..." She thumped a fist on Shizuka's shoulder. It did not even sting. "You're terrible."

Chuckling softly, Shizuka withdrew her hand from her girlfriend's moist sanctuary and gingerly tapped a slender digit on the latter's dry lips. Kotoha turned a shade of scarlet and shot a glance of feigned disapproval at Shizuka, but the girl seemed almost eager to engulf the soaked finger and kiss it clean. The very sight pumped so much blood to Shizuka's cheeks she felt them burn.

She gently took away her digit and claimed her beloved one's lips, thrilled to no end by the sweet taste lingering on the pair of cherry petals.

"Ne, Shizuka-chan?" called the girl she loved, whose already short sentence was cut into syllables by the frantic kisses enrapturing their mouths.

"Hm?" Shizuka's lips trailed downward and rained butterfly pecks on the skin on Kotoha's throat, making her squirm and twitch. Pleased, Shizuka placed a hand on a side of her sweetheart's flushed face, which she caressed to her heart's content while she reveled in the flavor of the other girl's skin. It sang on her taste bud.

"Stop that, please," pleaded the little angel, who placed both hands on Shizuka's countenance and lifted it up so that they could gaze into each other's eyes. The other Himemiya's amethyst ones shone with love. "Listen to me first, okay? I'll..." she swallowed hard, "let you do whatever you... want afterward, ne?"

"Okay." Shizuka playfully bit her sister's nose.

"Would you do a couple of favors for me?"

"What is the first one?"

"Um..." Kotoha hesitated, "it's about the school play on the day of the cultural festival..."

"I already told Aizawa that I was not going to be at school that day." Shizuka smiled at the shock unfolding rapidly across the countenance of her sweetheart. "Although you are really, really cute when you are jealous, I do not want to push the limit too far." She chuckled at Kotoha's sanguine complexion.

"How did Aizawa-san react?" she murmured, sounding very happy now.

"She looked like she wanted to bite my head off." Shizuka laughed. "But she agreed. Grudgingly."

"I'm surprised she did," remarked Kotoha, who could not suppress a giggle of her own.

"She had no choice," Shizuka explained. "I threatened that if she pressed me, I would just pretend to be sick on that day and stay home. She knew I was serious, so she caved in and chose someone else for the role."

"Who's that?" her ardent bedmate inquired curiously.

"Mikoto." She winked at her sister.

"You're kidding." The sixteen-year-old's disbelief faded a little more with every second she spent looking at Shizuka's straight face and finally shattered. Hilarity came over her. "For real?"

Shizuka nodded, grinning. She was willing to wager that the bespectacled girl did that because she wanted to pay the androgyne back for what he had done to her early this morning. Plus, she suspected that Aizawa Nanami simply wanted to spend some time with someone who was involved in the event that had changed Shizuka's life forever. _"Misery loves company,"_ so the saying went. Although, Shizuka doubted the violinist remembered the fact that the two leading roles had to share a mouth-to-mouth kiss, which she herself inserted into the script through threat and intimidation.

"But that means Mii-chan has to dress up as a girl, right?" said the sunlight of her world.

"Yes," Shizuka replied. "I felt really sorry for him... but I cannot back out now." She nuzzled her nose against that of the girl she loved. "Your fault. All yours."

"I am sorry." Her little angel hugged her more tightly. "I will compensate to you later... okay?"

"How?"

"I'll... stay up as late as you want tonight," whispered the golden-haired beauty, her amethyst eyes downcast. "I'll... keep you company for as long as you wish, okay?"

"Sounds good," Shizuka murmured against the other adolescent's forehead. "Now with that out of the way, what is the second favor you want to ask of me?"

"Ah... can you tutor me at home from now on?" requested the girl she loved.

"Why?" She blinked. "You are doing well enough on your own."

"Because I want to take a grade-skipping exam at the end of this school year," answered the girl a year her junior. "I... want to be in the same grade... and the same class as you next year. I don't think they'd refuse a girl who only wants to be close to her sister."

Overwhelming by the love that flooded her veins, Shizuka gazed at her precious sister for a brief moment before she leaned in and rubbed her forehead against that of her first love. "When did you decide?" she whispered. "And why do you want to?"

"When I was in class today," professed the girl with the refulgent hair each strand of which was as fine as a thread of spun gold. "I missed you very much... and I kept wondering what you were doing in your own class... and whether you were thinking about me." She blushed. "Do you know that I really wanted to feign some sickness so that I could go to the infirmary and call you over?"

"Then why did you not?" inquired Shizuka.

"Because I remembered that the nurse was always there," Kotoha answered ruefully, her body temperature taking a sharp hike. "She's a very sharp woman. As soon as I told you I loved you, she would know that your little sister had fallen so hopelessly for you she could barely breathe when she thought of you." She laid her fingertips on Shizuka's chin, caressed it fondly, and smiled broadly at what Shizuka knew to be a vast expanse of affection in her sapphire eyes. "Besides, even if you did come in, it wouldn't make me feel much better. I would go crazy to have you by my side... and could do nothing more than look at you... when I was dying to touch you, hold you, and kiss you, Shizuka-chan." Her baby sister sounded so sincere that Shizuka could feel the terrible longing the former must have felt in her words.

"I am sorry," she murmured and moved in to receive from the love of her life a searing kiss.

"In any case, this morning was torturous," said the sixteen-year-old. "Even thinking of spending the rest of the school year in a classroom without you scares me." Her beautiful face grew dreamy. "But if you are there where I can see you... I can just look at you and be happy..." She lovingly drew her tongue across Shizuka's lips. "So, will you help me?"

"Of course," she agreed, drawing from her sibling a joyous smile. "But when you pass the exam, my life is going to be very difficult."

"Why?" Her love asked.

"Because with you there in my class, how am I going to be able to concentrate on the lecture?" she said. "I would be too busy watching you, hoping you would smile in my direction. And I would smile back like an idiot for the rest of the class to see. It would be very, very embarrassing, do you not think so?"

Kotoha laughed. "We would be doing the same thing then," she allowed once her mirth subsided. "You don't have to worry, ne?"

"Not a very good assurance, I tell you," Shizuka teased and elicited from her gorgeous bedmate a loud but playful yelp as she pinned the latter down on the mattress and stole one deep and passionate kiss after another from the younger girl's delicious mouth.

On the bed and in each other's arms they stayed and enjoyed one another's warm presence until Shizuka's stomach let out a soft growl, signifying its empty content.

"How come you're hungry again?" her sister inquired, amethyst eyes gleaming in mischief.

"Because it is so energy-consuming to make love to you for, what, more than two hours now?" she countered, quietly marveling at the scarlet dye splashed over her sweetheart's face. She could not help but laugh the instant she heard the same grumbling sound from her girlfriend's flat and smooth tummy.

"I am going to get something for us to eat, okay?" Still blushing hotly, Kotoha slipped out of her arms and climbed off the bed. The girl then put on her shirt and skirt and underclothes, discarded so quickly and uncaringly as soon as they stepped inside their soundproofed sanctuary, and stepped out, leaving in Shizuka's heart a void that could not be filled by anyone else on earth.

Returning a few minutes later, the golden-haired girl brought along a round dish atop which sat a couple of sandwiches. Smiling at Shizuka, Kotoha climbed back on the bed and willingly allowed herself to be engulfed in the curves of Shizuka's bare, loving arms.

"What kind of sandwich is it?" she murmured with her lips around an earlobe of her girlfriend. Her hand itched to remove the clothes Kotoha had on her graceful frame at the moment. Her entire body hungered for the feel of her lover's bare skin, silken and warm beyond words.

"Tuna," replied the Ototachibana first-year.

Shizuka laughed, drawing from her resplendent angel a startled look.

"I am sorry," she wheezed. "But I cannot help it. Do you remember what our mothers said about our last visit to our grandparents' house?" She continued at a nod from the love of her life. "It was the same thing that I brought back to the living room after I..."

* * *

 _Four months ago._

* * *

 _Having just returned from fetching tuna sandwiches from the kitchen, Himemiya Shizuka found herself smiling fondly down at the precious wonder lying on the sofa she was standing in front of. Himemiya Kotoha, her little sister, was watching television when she left. The girl was now sleeping soundly on her side with a seraphic face the most heartless person would be hard-pressed to_ not _love. Her golden braid shining with the cold fluorescent light, the sleeping maiden was indescribably adorable in a simple tank-top dyed in her favorite color, a buttonless white blouse with long sleeves, and a snowy skirt long enough to cover her precious treasure but too short to hide her long shapely thighs. A pair of knee-high socks added the finishing touch to the cutest girl in the whole wide world._

 _She put the sandwich tray on a table nearby and sat down in front of the sunlight of her heart._

So adorable! _she marveled in her head as she folded her hands on the sofa and laid a side of her head atop the back of one. No more than the length of a finger separated their noses' tips._ So cute!

 _Shizuka had not once felt more... drawn to her sister during the first sixteen years of her life._

 _Since the bathroom incident, at the time of which circumstances opened her eyes and let her see the breathtaking beauty Kotoha had grown into, she had realized that her gaze was more often than not inclined to wander the little angel's curvaceous figure like metal attracted to a magnet. She started to watch the fifteen-year-old more intently, admire her enthralling cuteness more often, and notice subtle details her former self would certainly miss._

 _Shizuka sat a little closer, reducing the distance between their noses to half what it used to be. The floral fragrance that was her sister's breaths immediately overwhelmed her senses. She really liked the way her Kotoha smelled. She was a prime rose blossom with such a sweet and pure natural scent she required no aid from colognes or perfumes to be noticed. She adored the healthy color on her Kotoha's cheeks. It reminded her of the rosy shade on a Maiden's Blush in full bloom, although at the moment that very shade had deepened to a light scarlet on the girl's snowy skin for reasons she could not grasp. She loved the contours of her baby sister's breasts, globes of perfection so round and perky for one so young. They were decently hidden beneath the tank-top at the moment, yet Shizuka could never forget the moment she was allowed to set her sight on her Kotoha's beautiful bosom, which were tipped by what must have been the most delicious cherries she had ever seen._

 _Somewhat dazed, she took the effulgent braid of the fifteen-year-old into her hands and slowly undid it. She had been so used to working her sister's hair into a braid in the morning and took it apart in the evening that in no time at all, silken and lush golden strands slipped through the cracks between her fingers and fell down like smooth golden sands in an hourglass. Quite uncertain as to why her heart was racing in her chest, she retained a handful of those long luminous strands and brushed them lovingly in silence. In the end, she brought them to her nose, where she quietly breathed in the faint lingering scent of the shampoo the younger girl had used in the bath._

 _She did not know why such a simple gesture, sisterly at heart, could fascinate her so._

 _She closed her lips around the tip of her beloved sibling's nose and kissed it softly as her hand stroked the velvet sheet that was the skin on her cheek. Sensing pleasant waves of heat billowing from the pit of her stomach, she rained more kisses, each as light as the stroke of a butterfly as the next, all over her sweetheart's gorgeous countenance, lingering the longest on her lidded eyes and warm cheeks and delicate jowl, while her palm tremblingly grazed along the fully clothed arm of the sunlight of her world._

 _Overjoyed by the softness singing on her lips, she took the hand of the person she liked the most by fingers and brought it to her face. Her heart pounding more loudly than ever now, she admired the slim and seemingly fragile lengths of each digit for a few moments before an impulse took over her and compelled her to bring them closer to her mouth. Breaths uneven and only little short of rapid, she brushed her lips over the slumbering maiden's wrist and dripped gentle kisses on the back of her hand._

 _Touching another girl with her mouth, not even where it mattered, had never felt so good._

 _Feeling as though a layer of honey was embalming her soul, Shizuka kissed each of the knuckles of the fifteen-year-old with a little more enthusiasm and eventually found her mouth engulfing the tip of her sister's forefinger and her lips sucking it in a way that was not quite appropriate between ones bonded by the same flesh and blood. Her cheeks aflush with warmth now, she released the sweet, sweet finger in her mouth and rose to her feet, intending to splash some cold water on her face in the bathroom and try to figure out why she was acting in such a peculiar manner._

 _A very soft and warm hand curled gently around her wrist._

 _"Don't go, onee-chan," whispered the fifteen-year-old, her lucent amethyst eyes fluttering open. Her voice was sweet, a tad shy, and awash with love._

 _Smoothing her face of the shock that nearly unnerved her, Shizuka sank onto her knees on the floor and gave her beloved sibling an adoring smile. Her smile only broadened when the youthful angel threaded fingers with her and squeezed her hand in the loving manner the girl always did._

 _"I thought you were asleep," she said quietly._

 _Her sister shook her head. The rosy shade of her complexion deepened a little further. "I was just resting with my eyes closed, that's all. I was having a little headache, you see."_

 _"Were you feeling sick?" Shizuka asked, deeply concerned._

 _"Don't worry." The sunlit angel stroked her head with the vacant hand. "I think it was the tea."_

 _"Tea?"_ _Shizuka blinked._

 _The fifteen-year-old laughed. "Grandpa fed me some tea with a few drops of whiskey when you were taking a shower and grandma on the phone. It tasted very good, but I didn't expect it to hit me with this kind of torture afterwards."_

 _"I will get some painkiller," Shizuka announced in an anxious voice. She only wished she could take the agony in place of her sweetheart._

 _"No, don't go," the younger Himemiya said hurriedly. "Just stay with me, ne? You're better than any medicine I can take." Her amethyst gems seemed to be catching and magnifying the fluorescent light. Her cheeks aglow with a deep crimson color, she was beautiful beyond descriptions. "It didn't hurt much when you're here with me, onee-chan."_

 _Had Shizuka wings, those words would be the soaring winds lifting her to the highest heavens. Had Shizuka wounds, this affectionate voice would be a balm to heal and remove the anguish. She felt so happy she thought gravity was loosening its grip._

 _"Then try to sleep," she advised, her voice a breathless whisper. "I will be here with you."_

 _"I don't want to." Kotoha blushed as her searing fingers blazed their way downward and cupped Shizuka's chin. "How am I supposed to enjoy your caresses while asleep? In case you haven't noticed... I loved it, onee-chan. More than I can say. Why did you wait until now to touch and kiss me like that?"_

 _A flame, intense yet pleasantly so, raged on Shizuka's cheeks._ _Although she and her baby sister had always been close, she had never showered the younger girl with physical intimacy like this._

 _"Beats me," she whispered._

 _"You're not going to stop doing it, are you?" inquired her sweetheart, worried by the prospect._

 _"Not unless you do not want me to anymore," she replied honestly._

 _"I do." The angel kissed Shizuka on her forehead. "Actually, I don't think I can have enough."_

 _She laughed softly at that. Sometimes she had to thank Heaven that her parents had given birth to a girl this cute and sweet._

 _"Bring me to bed, please?" implored the fifteen-year-old. "This sofa is getting uncomfortable."_

 _Smiling, Shizuka scooped her gorgeous sister into her arms and carried the girl to her bedroom on the second floor. During the short walk, she could not help but notice that her near-weightless angel's endearing amethyst eyes never left the contours of her face. Despite the fact that she had always enjoyed the full attention of the sunlight of her world, this was the first time she realized how much she reveled in such an intent gaze. It warmed her blood, it heated her entire body, and it dried her throat. And yet at the same time it wreathed her mind in a sense of serenity she only found at the brink of falling asleep._

 _It was indeed strange._

 _Gently, Shizuka laid her sister on her back on the mattress. The fifteen-year-old refused to untie her arms around Shizuka's neck until she climbed onto the bed and lay down next to her. The younger girl then rolled onto one side and snuggled as close to Shizuka as she could. Overwhelmed by their newfound intimacy, she hesitated for a few seconds before she placed a hand on the hollow of Kotoha's waist. For reasons she failed to comprehend, the pleasant body heat emanating from the girl one year her junior spread a shiver over hers the same way an arctic wind would. A second one came. A third._

 _"Why are you trembling, onee-chan?" inquired the little angel, who cupped Shizuka's face with both hands and caressed it with her fingertips. "Are you cold?" They could have been on fire._

 _She shook her head, not knowing how to explain the unfamiliar emotions in her heart._

 _"Don't be afraid." Her sister chuckled. "I'm not going to skin and eat you, koneko-chan." She only called Shizuka by that nickname when she was at her most playful or affectionate._

 _Sensing her tension being drained by her little puppy's cheerfulness, Shizuka smiled and hugged the girl more tightly. In blessed quietude she enjoyed the soft feel and warmth of the one she liked most._

 _"Do you remember what I usually asked you to do when we were kids?" sang a melodious voice unmatched by any other sound, natural or manmade. She smiled up at Shizuka and waited for her to nod. "Can you do that again for me? It's really relaxing."_

 _"Yes." Shizuka's hand slipped under the blouse and the tank-top. As soon as her hand made contact with the smooth skin and warm flesh beneath, her little sister drew a sharp intake of breath that set her cheeks afire. Kotoha burrowed more deeply into her embrace and hid a burning face in her chest when her slightly trembling hand slid onto the former's lower back and began its slow journey upward, awarding its tingling palm with the silken texture of her sweetheart's skin. When her fingertips rose high enough to touch the strap of her sister's bra, she froze, unsure as to how to proceed._

 _Saying nothing, the fifteen-year-old reached backward and undid the clasp. Not bothering to remove the bra, she slipped her arm around Shizuka's neck and cuddled her even more tightly._

 _With the obstacle out of the way, her hand roamed Kotoha's back to her heart's content, eliciting deep sighs and contented coos that blew more dry winds to the firestorm on her cheeks. She soon realized that there were certain pressure points that seemed to excite the younger maiden the most, so she began to focus more on these places. As her fingertips explored the shallow trench of the other Himemiya's spine as well as her lovely back dimples, she grew restless in Shizuka's embrace. Her curvaceous frame trembled slightly ever so often, her breathing became more ragged, and her body heat took a sharp rise._

 _Although "relaxing" played no part in what she must have been feeling at the moment, she did not appear to mind._

 _Visage ablaze with affection, she laid an index finger across Shizuka's lips and brushed them in a meaningful way. "Kiss me," she whispered softly. Her amethyst eyes, the surface of a pond rippling under the glorious sunlight, said more than her mouth ever could._

 _Amazed by how docile and subdued the fifteen-year-old had grown under her touches, Shizuka moved in to lather her face with kisses. She discovered that Kotoha liked it most when she sucked at the wells of her closed eyes, when she licked her nose, or when she bit her delicate chin. Meanwhile, she could not help realizing that her body had grown into a fierce summer. She suddenly fell under a terrible urge to shed her clothes to relieve herself of the terrible waves of heat cascading endlessly over her frame and filling her with a flurry of thoughts that came and went too swiftly to remain more than shadows in her mind._

 _She did not know that her sister was experiencing the same problem until the girl pulled back a little and pulled her buttonless blouse off of her curvaceous body. Lying on one side now with only a skirt and a tank-top that leaves her shoulders and arms bare, she could dry the throat of any man who looked. Shizuka swallowed audibly at the thought, awfully conscious of how parched her throat had become during their moment of precious intimacy._

 _Slightly frightened of a vague feeling in her heart, she withdrew her hands from beneath her wingless angel's crimson top and went very still on her side on the mattress, not knowing what to do. The younger girl studied her quietly with a puzzled face until she could take the awkward silence no more._

 _"You have grown, have you not, Kotoha?" she teased her sweetheart._

 _"Really?" her beloved sibling asked, surprised. "I checked yesterday. I didn't get any taller."_

 _"Not your height." She chuckled, hand gesturing at the little puppy's bosom. "Your bust."_

 _Kotoha blushed a sunset. "Is that supposed to be a compliment?" She sounded happy._

 _"Yes." Shizuka laughed. "How big are they?"_

 _"Ninety-five," the other Himemiya confessed, her voice timid but tinted with a hint of pride._

 _"Impossible." Shizuka made a face of feigned disbelief. "You are exaggerating."_

 _"Well then," the sweet maiden took a short pause as though to control her inborn shyness, "do you want to ascertain with your own eyes and hands?"_

 _Shizuka could tell that her sister was joking. She was aware she was supposed to say some funny line in response. Yet she nodded before she knew she did. She nearly swallowed her tongue afterwards._

 _Her breathtaking beauty augmented by the full blush on her countenance. Kotoha sat up straight on the bed and pulled her tank top over her head. In the next instant, her already unclasped bra – it was in crimson, her favorite color – fell onto the mattress, leaving her upper torso bare to Shizuka's gaze. No amount of words could describe the perfect beauty embodied in the other Himemiya's round, soft, but deliciously perky breasts. Her carmine nipples were stiff, whether from the coolness breathing out from the air conditioner or from any other cause Shizuka could not say and dared not speculate. Her angel's stomach was downy-smooth and flat, a blatant contradiction of the amount of sweets she consumed every day. A part of her bikini lines were visible above the waistline of her skirt, sensuous curves that led to a gorgeous treasure guarded by a pair of long and shapely thighs._

 _Kotoha was breathing very hard._

 _Shizuka's hands rose on their own accords and enfolded the twinned globes of perfection on the younger maiden's frame. Lightning flared in her mind at the contact, at the moment she was allowed to perceive the marshmallow-soft flesh in her grasp, and at the moment her thoughts spun out of control at the succulent stiffness of her sister's rosebuds. Yet it was too late. She had known. Her hands had burned the roundness and the softness and pertness of those beautiful breasts into her mind._

 _Kotoha's soft, near-inaudible whimper rang an alarm in her mind and alerted her of a cold hand around her heart. She withdrew her hands, feeling them burn at her sides._

 _"What... do you think?" whispered the girl she cherished, arms shyly folding over her charms and depriving Shizuka of their gorgeousness. She acted as though her sister touching her breasts was nothing out of the ordinary._

 _"You were telling the truth," she conceded in response._

 _"How could you tell?" The fifteen-year-old gave her an interested look._

 _"Because I am a ninety-five, too," she professed. "Yours feel as... large as mine."_

 _"But yours seem bigger," her sweet Kotoha opined quietly, almost to herself, "and prettier, and cuter, and firmer, and..." She trailed off._

 _"But I like yours more!" Shizuka could have been hit across her chest by a hammer._ Gods, what did I just say? _The aftertaste of the words seared her tongue._

 _"Thanks..." the pristine angel whispered in gratitude, cherry petal lips curved by a proud smile._

 _"You know, it is rather late," Shizuka decided. The clock hanging on the wall read ten thirty in the evening. It was Kotoha's usual bedtime "You should go to sleep." A part of her wanted to ask her sister if she could stay. Another was urging her to run the hell out of her and never look back. They were equally persuasive. She did not know which one she should listen to._

 _"I should," the other girl agreed shortly before a huge yawn nearly unhinged her jaw. Strangely enough, she was adorable even when she did something like that. "Will you do me a favor, onee-chan?" she murmured drowsily as she wiped a tear from the corner of her left eye._

 _"Sure." Shizuka forced a smile. "What is it?"_

 _Kotoha looked at the white blouse, the crimson tank top, and the crimson-colored bra lying on the mattress. Her complexion deepened. "Put these in the dirty laundry basket and get a pair of pajama from the suitcase for me?" She rubbed her temples. "I can't really walk," she explained as she pulled the blanket over her shoulders, completely robbing Shizuka of the sight of her curvaceous front. It left in her soul a strange taste of disappointment and regret._

 _"Okay," she acquiesced, climbing off the mattress._

 _"Wait," called her precious puppy._

 _Standing on the floor like a deep-rooted tree, Shizuka swallowed audibly and watched the fifteen-year-old take off her skirt beneath the blanket, causing rustling sounds that stirred emotions she never thought she had. She was pondering whether she should turn around when her sister produced the snowy piece of clothing from beneath the blanket and put it near the rest of her clothes._

 _Knowing that she was blushing furiously from glancing at a nearby mirror, Shizuka waited for the little angel to shed the very last piece of underwear she had on her. Her heart was racing in her chest._

 _"Guess the color of my panties?" Kotoha said, smiling in a failed attempt at mischief. Cuteness and innocence were what radiated from her angelic face. "You have three tries."_

 _"You are not wearing any," Shizuka humored her sweetheart, drawing from her a giggle that rang in the room like the crystal chimes in a quiet auditorium. Its absolute purity and unrivaled clarity stunned her speechless._

 _"Two more," announced the golden-haired maiden wreathed in the blanket._

 _"What do I get if I guess right anyway?"_

 _"A kiss."_ _Kotoha smiled and brushed back the loose golden streams that were her hair, exposing the unblemished skin of her forearm to the light of the fluorescent tubes._

 _"White," she ventured, eliciting from the fifteen-year-old an amused shake of head. Then her eyes fell upon the crimson bra on the mattress. "Red?"_

 _"What took you so long?" Kotoha laughed. "I never imagined a girl had to spend so much effort just to find an excuse to kiss her sister." She pulled a smooth and delicate hand out from beneath the blanket. It was holding a pair of panties the color of which matched that of her bra. "Come over here and get your reward, koneko-chan." She put her lingerie on the mattress, lay down so that her head rested on a fluffy pillow, and extended a naked slender arm in Shizuka's direction._

 _Heat flushed Shizuka's cheeks. The blanket did a very poor job at hiding her sister's curvaceous figure. She could see the curves of Kotoha's breasts, the prominent stiffness of her nipples, the flat field that was her abdomen, and the inviting depression at the juncture between her lithesome legs._

 _Head void of thoughts, she climbed onto the bed and crouched on all four atop her sweetheart's blanketed frame. Kotoha studied her and touched her face with her electric fingertips for a few moments before she wrapped her bare arms around Shizuka's waist and gently pulled her down, allowing her to appreciate the wonderful softness underneath. Next she knew, the angel's moist lips had sought out the skin on her cheeks, offering each a kiss deeper and more passionate than any she ever gave._

 _"I thought I would only get one," Shizuka said breathlessly afterwards._

 _"The second one was my appreciation of your playing and being cute, koneko-chan," whispered the flame-cheeked angel, who smiled and lovingly tugged at the narrow and long tail that was Shizuka's azure hair before slipping her panties into the breast pocket of Shizuka's button-shirt._

 _"You are welcome," she whispered back, her breaths made uneven by the sight of the beautiful girl lying beneath and gazing at her with a pair of adoring amethyst eyes._

 _"I love you, onee-chan," intimated the sunlight of her world. "Do you love me?" Her visage was aflush with shyness yet at the same time awash with affection and delights._

 _"I love you, Kotoha," she murmured with all the feelings she conjured from the bottom of her heart. "I care about you more than myself, more than our parents, more than anybody else in the world." Her honesty spread a radiant glow of joy across Kotoha's face and brought a brilliant smile to her lips._

 _"I wouldn't mind hearing you say that every night," announced the fifteen-year-old._

 _"Then I will say it every night, before you go to bed," Shizuka vowed. "It will be our little ritual, okay?" She kissed her sister on the forehead._

 _"Okay," Kotoha's voice sang in happiness._

 _"Now stay here, ne? I will get the pajama for you." Another huge yawn and an obedient nod were the last she saw from the other teenager before she grabbed the clothes and climbed off the bed._

 _Once she had deposited them into the laundry basket, she fell down onto her knees in front of a large suitcase and looked for her sister's pajama. She quickly picked a crimson pair and brought it back to the bed. There, she found a Himemiya Kotoha soundly immersed in a slumber beneath the blanket._

 _Smiling, Shizuka placed the outfit on the bed, walked to the door, turned off the light, and left._

 _Only after she had closed the door to her room did she realize that Kotoha's panties were still inside her pocket. She thought of going back and returning it... but for some reason she took it into her hand and gazed at it silently for a few moments before she brought it to her nose and took a deep breath._

 _The uniquely sweet and fragrant aroma rising from the smooth fabric was one thing that would never be erased from her memories._

* * *

"So that's where it went." Kotoha gave a melodious chuckle. "No wonder I couldn't find it." Her cheeks reddened. "Do you still keep it, by the way?" The younger girl tentatively touched Shizuka's lips with the tips of her fingers. She kissed each of them.

"I do," she whispered. "I put it somewhere in my wardrobe. "I did not know why at that time... but I did not really want to give it back. I... eventually forgot about it, though."

"Did you do... naughty things with it?" Kotoha's amethyst eyes gleamed playfully.

She shook her head, quietly wondering why she did not even during the darkest days of her life, when she missed her sister enough to rip her heart out so that she could silence it, but was not brave enough to go to the room next door, where the sunlight of her world resided.

"I would not have minded if you did, though," she confided, coloring even more darkly.

"Do you want me to do it for you to see now?" Shizuka breathed. Her right hand lowly pulled the zipper of the sweet angel's skirt down, revealing the piece of lingerie beneath.

"Sure." A crimson-faced Kotoha put the dish with the sandwiches aside, sighing most blissfully as she spread her arousingly slender thighs and welcomed an inquisitive hand that slipped beneath the piece of lingerie draping over her sweetness.

Their night began anew.

* * *

 _Saturday, July 11th, 8:59 PM._

* * *

As soon as the curtains were drawn across the stage, Himemiya Kotoha fell against the back of her seat, feeling completely overwhelmed by the wonderful treat to the eyes and ears that ended the first half of the concert. It was a solo performance in which her gorgeous sister, Himemiya Shizuka, stood on stage and captivated her audience with the unearthly sounds she produced with her western flute. The musical piece she played was _"The Trail of Tears,"_ one composed with the intention of conveying the pain of separation experienced by a woman who thought she would never see the love of her life again. Through ingenious improvisations, the elder Himemiya had transformed the piece to something even better than the original. Although the tune was for the most part untouched, the meaning was no longer the same.

 _"The Trail of Tears"_ now rang from start to finish with the happy tears of a girl who had found the other half of her existence. Every note sang with love and affection, every movement with overflowing joy. Augmented by the sound-carrying quality of the acoustic chamber, her otherworldly music radiated in melodious waves from the brightly lit stage and captured Kotoha's heart, rendering her oblivious to the rest of the world. Sitting at the very front row, she could see that her beautiful lover's sapphire eyes focused on her face and hers alone. Coupled with the fact that she could feel as though the enchantress on stage, body clad in a black tuxedo and hair tied at the nape of her head with an indigo ribbon, was whispering words of love directly into her ears through her arresting melody, she sometimes found tears welling in her eyes or streaking down her cheeks.

Once her sister had lowered the silver flute from her irresistible lips and bowed to the students packing the auditorium, silence hung for almost a minute before thunderous applauses took the chamber by storms. Everybody was on their feet, some roaring cheers at the top of their lungs. Only after the curtains were drawn did they sit back down and gush about the best performance they had seen in their lifetime. Their praises, freely and excitedly given, could not have made Kotoha any prouder of the girl she loved.

"Go see her, Kotoha," suggested Himemiya Chikane, sitting to Kotoha's immediate right. "I am sure she would love to be with you until she comes back onstage for the second half." The regal queen gave her a smile and gestured at the bouquet of seventeen purple roses on her lap. "And don't you have to give that to her?"

"Yes," she answered her azure-haired mother with a bright smile.

"Let me clean up your face first," said Himemiya Himeko, who occupied the seat to Kotoha's left. The youthful woman then took out a handkerchief from her purse and cleaned the trails of dried tears on Kotoha's cheeks. Once she was done, she pulled back and smiled an indulgent smile. "You look beautiful tonight, kiddo," she said, her right hand gesture at Kotoha's outfit.

Gracing her slender body was an exquisitely cut Chinese cheongsam crafted in crimson silk. Sewn by golden threads onto its front brocade were elegant patterns depicting a hundred birds spreading their wings beneath the flares of a sun that was actually a circular gap at the middle of her chest, revealing a part of her deep cleavage. The garment, its bodice tight enough to hug her slender frame and show off her curves but not so tight it would cause discomfort, wasn't too long, its finely tailored hem hanging halfway down her thighs. The sides of the cheongsam were split up to her hips, exposing a pair of slim and shapely legs decently concealed by thigh-high stockings also woven from first-class silk. High-collared but without sleeves, the expensive apparel, brought back from her parents' concert in China, was worn over by a short long-sleeved blouse with silver threads lining its shoulders and cuffs. To match the outfit, Kotoha's golden hair was combed back and gracefully worked into twinned pigtail braids that hung at her front at the moment. Adorning her ears was a pair of clipped-on gold earrings, each shaped like a flaring sun.

"Thanks to you, kaa-chan," she murmured gratefully.

When her golden-haired mother finished with her at home and let her peer into the mirror, she was at a complete loss for words. Himeko's amazing sense of aesthetics and fine-tuning skills had rendered her so... beautiful she barely recognized herself.

"Did you see Shizuka's face when she found you sitting between us?" The photographer laughed in amusement behind a raised hand. "Have you seen her blush _half_ as hard, Chikane-chan?" Her wife shook her head and joined her in mirth.

Kotoha too, laughed at the fond memories. Since Shizuka had to leave an hour early to prepare for the concert, she never had a chance to see Kotoha's in her cheongsam until the seventeen-year-old came onstage and looked down at the front row. Her precious koneko-chan had appeared as though she wanted to jump off the platform and kneel at her feet. No amount of words could have described how adorable the elder Himemiya was with her cheeks encompassed by a rosy glow and sapphire eyes alight with love.

"Enough dawdling," the musician interjected. "You should go."

"I'll see you in a little bit, kaa-chan." She kissed her mothers and rose to her feet.

"Don't make a scene, okay?" the photographer called after her, making her face burn.

Upon being informed of the change in her and sister's relationship, Himemiya Aoki and Sanae had congratulated them warmly and happily on finding love. The retired couple then smiled at them and told them that something was going to be done to ensure that society would stay out of their way. As it turned out, their parents and grandparents had planned ahead even when the four of them were uncertain as to whether Shizuka and Kotoha were going to choose one another as their romantic interest.

Aoki and Sanae once belonged to the most influential echelon in the world. Although they already retired, they still possessed connections to place so high normal folks wouldn't imagine and were owed favors by people so powerful they alone made choices that changed the structure of national government at will. A week ago the retired C.O.O. and legal counsel had picked up the phone and called they who could bend the truth. One phone call altered Kotoha's birth and DNA record, effectively erasing her blood ties to the Himemiya couple and making her their adopted daughter. A second summoned the power of the press to their aid.

Thanks to every outlet of the information network, the employees of which were either convinced by what they were told or reluctant to proclaim otherwise, informed Mahoroba City and, by extension, the entire world of a story completely fabricated but hailed a fact in its most pristine form. According to this version of the truth, Himemiya Chikane had a miscarriage at the end of her pregnancy and lost her child in a hospital's operation room. Her wife and her parents did not want her to suffer, so they decided to keep her in the dark and give her what she wished for. It was luck that provided them with a baby born on the same day, whose mother passed away as soon as she finished giving birth. The Himemiya then took this girl and presented it to Chikane as her blood daughter.

The media elaborated that the Himemiya family eventually worked up their courage to confess to the genius musician. The happy ending, of course, was achieved when the regal woman forgave them for what they did and proclaimed that she would love Kotoha regardless of her not being of Himemiya blood.

The story ended up drawing buzz from both the Himemiya Clan and the outsider folks around the city for days. Whether they believed it or not she never knew but could hardly care less. With the fabricated evidence, no one could tell her to her face that she was committing a deepest act of immorality by falling for a girl of the same flesh and blood. Perhaps she was living a lie, but if doing so could grant her a lifetime of happiness with the person she loved, she was willing to live it. Nothing could be more important than Himemiya Shizuka. Nothing at all. For her, Kotoha was willing to sacrifice anything she had.

And yet she and her sister were still keeping their relationship a secret even though a week had passed since the news spread across Mahoroba like wildfire. Partly it was because they wanted no part of the unnecessary attention they would receive should the public learned they were in love. Whether they wanted it or not, their physical appearances made them individuals with high profiles in school. Partly it was because they didn't want to give the other students the impression that they had fallen for one another even before they knew they were unrelated by blood. They would learn of the unbreakable bond Shizuka and Kotoha shared in time. Just not now, of course.

Smiling at the bright future brought to her by her kind grandparents, Kotoha held the rose bouquet closer to her heart and picked up her pace. Five minutes of hurrying along the front aisle brought her to a person whom she had wronged on so many levels. In a formal white suit with his long hair tied at the nape of his neck, Oogami Mikoto was reclining silently against his seat, his slender eyebrows furrowed in worries, his obsidian eyes troubled, and his androgynous visage heavy with an expression Kotoha could only name confused. Strange indeed. Mikoto had never been one to project so many emotions onto his face.

She wondered if this had anything to do with their phone conversation two weeks ago. _Probably not,_ she rejected the possibility. It was him who had proposed that they _"break up"_ first. It was him who had said she should not be sorry for falling in love with Shizuka after she told him the truth. He had always seemed his normal self during the course of the week. This, whatever it was, had to be something new.

She laid a hand on his shoulder and shook it gently. He blinked and stared at her as though seeing her for the first time.

"Hey there, Kotoha," he greeted her warmly. Within one split second, his face became smooth.

"Is there anything wrong, Mii-chan?" she inquired.

"Why do you ask?" The androgyne peered at her, surprised.

"Well," she hesitated, "you didn't look quite well to me. Emotionally at least."

"Have I fallen so low that _even_ the oblivious you noticed?" He gave her a grin that took the sting off his words. "But well, you got me there." He gave a deep sigh, his visage relinquishing its unreadable qualities. He noticed the rose bouquet in her other hand. "Going to visit Shizuka?" he asked, flashing her a knowing smile, and waited for a nod from her before continuing. "You shouldn't dawdle here then. Off with you now. The interlude only lasts for fifteen minutes. And oh!" He swallowed audibly. He wasn't half as nervous when he pulled Kotoha aside on Valentine's Day and confessed. "Give my class rep a message for me, please?"

"Aizawa-san? Sure."

Then he told her and good-naturedly shooed her away. It was as though there never existed an awkward episode in which they were boyfriend and girlfriend. It was as though he had forgotten that he used to be in love with her. He puzzled her no end.

The door to the waiting room was wide open when she arrived. Inside, she found most members of the Ototachibana Symphony, all of them female students gathered across second-year classes, chatting in merry voices while seated on several rows of sofa arranged neatly in front of a plasma television set. Her sister was standing in a corner with Aizawa Nanami, the former holding in her arms a dozen or more flower bouquets and looking as though she did not know what to do with them. The pony-tailed girl, clad in the same outfit as her friends, appeared mightily amused.

A knock she gave on the door directed seven pairs of eyes in the room toward her in unison.

"Kotoha!" called her first love, whose gorgeous face lit up like a full moon in a cloudless night, as she dropped the bouquets in her arms onto the carpeted floor and hurried toward the door. Next Kotoha knew, she had been drawn into an affectionately tight and warm hug. "Came to see me?" her sister whispered, her voice singing with amazement and love. All thoughts vacated Kotoha's adolescent mind.

"Yes," she murmured breathlessly, ready to be reclaimed by the mermaid's arms once more when she untied them and pulled back. "For you." She offered the tuxedo-clad seventeen-year-old the purple rose bouquet she handpicked from a flower store. "Your performance was incredible!" she praised with all the pride she summoned from her heart. "You moved me to tears, you meanie of an onee-chan..."

"You have my thanks and apologies." Shizuka smiled and fondly kissed Kotoha's eyes, her warm and moist lips melting Kotoha where she stood.

"At least bring Kotoha-chan inside," Aizawa Nanami commented wryly. "Rude to keep a visitor at the door, your sister at that."

"Sorry." The princeling gave Kotoha and her class representative a smile each, Kotoha's indulgent and Nanami's a tad apologetic. Her smile regaining its endearing quality the instant her sapphire eyes swiveled back to Kotoha's face, she threaded Kotoha's fingers with those of her vacant hand, squeezed it lovingly, and led her to an unoccupied sofa where she sat down with her statuesque sister and gazed at her face, not really knowing what she should do to ease the violent throbbing in her chest. The older girl was having the same problem, appearing as though she wanted to claim Kotoha's lips but dared not do so because she was awfully conscious of the presence of her teammates.

Her pony-tailed class representative came to the rescue.

"What say you we go get some coffee cans in the lobby, guys?" she proposed, her obsidian eyes twinkling in a rather suspicious fashion behind her glasses. "I'll pay. We have two more hours to go, after all. We don't want any of us to fall asleep onstage, do we?" Her classmates nodded and murmured approval as she turned in Shizuka's direction and hollered across the room, "Shizuka, do you want anything from the vending machine?"

"No, thank you," the statuesque prince in the tuxedo declined politely.

"Your loss."

The violinist shrugged and led the other members of the Ototachibana Symphony out of the room. Only after they had left and her onee-chan had turned the door bolt into place and returned to where she was could she heave a sigh of relief. Quietly, she gazed up at her sister, who had just put the bouquet on the sofa and looking down at her with a countenance painted with the color of love.

"You are so beautiful, Kotoha," she said, her deliciously deep voice saturated with wonder. What she said wasn't much different from Himeko's compliment. The effects were heavens and earth apart. While the photographer's praise drew from her a sense of adolescent happiness, Shizuka's stoked the fire of joy and pride in her heart and invoked a powerful wish to always look her best for the love of her life. Even though she marveled at the clothes her parents had bought her, only this stunning prince in front of her now could actually make her interested in wearing them. "You felled me when I saw you onstage," Shizuka added, offering her a smooth and delicate hand. "I thought our parents had brought me the sun clothed in human flesh. I knew you had one of these," she gestured at the crimson cheongsam Kotoha had on her, "but I never once imagined how... amazing you would be in it."

Blushing from the older girl's praise, Kotoha took her hand and let herself be drawn to her feet.

"Don't say these things too often, Shizuka-chan," she murmured happily as she stepped closer and allowed her first love to engulf her in a loving embrace. "I'll take them for truth." The warmth she felt from her onee-chan's finely dressed body warded off the mildly cool breaths of the air conditioner and made her feel as though she was sitting in a bathtub brimming with hot water. It relaxed her. It calmed her. It filled her with bliss.

"But they are." Her adolescent lover chuckled, amused. "Did you not notice my teammates staring and gaping at you when we first climbed onto the platform? You charmed them speechless even though most of that lot was crazy about boys." She tapped a finger on Kotoha's nose. "Some asked me to introduce them to you. That just goes to show how much you impressed them."

"What did you tell them, though?" she asked, her voice shy.

"I tell them all is fair in love and war." The seventeen-year-old winked at her. "I also advised that they should hurry and try to win your heart before I asked for your hand in marriage. They took my words for a bluff. They thought I was joking. They assumed all I had toward you were sisterly affections." She chuckled. "Little did they know."

"What did Aizawa-san say?" Kotoha inquired quietly, feeling happy enough to fly just because her sister told the Ototachibana Symphony that she was going to marry her. "She knew, didn't she?"

"She confined herself to amused glances in my direction," the Ototachibana second-year said.

"Sometimes I was afraid that she would tell everybody the truth," Kotoha confessed. "She's in love with you. Who knows what she can do to...?" She trailed off at a gentle shake of the other Himemiya's head.

"Give her some credit." The moonlight of her world gave her an indulgent smile. "I do not blame you for thinking that way because you never had a chance to know her the way I do. A good person like her would not do anything to harm her friends." She brushed her moist lips over Kotoha's forehead. "Besides, she has her share of problems right now. She does not have time to _remember_ the crush she had on me."

"What problem?" she asked curiously.

"Her privacy." Her statuesque girlfriend gave an apologetic smile. "I have no right to discuss it."

"I understand." She smiled back and moved in to enjoy several more kisses with her first love. She forced herself to pull back however, when she realized that the passions sparked by the meeting of tongues and lips were flaring out of control. She knew that if she continued, she might never be able to stop her own body later and would end up giving herself again and again to the person she held dear with all her heart. The time they spent in separation seemed to be taking its toll on her and her determination.

"I am really looking forward to spending tonight in bed with you, Kotoha," intimated Shizuka.

"Me too," she confessed, her face suffusing with heat of a thousand flames in the process. "Is there anything... special you would like me to do for you tonight?" she whispered shyly. "You know, to celebrate your successful performance in the concert? I would love to do anything you ask..."

"Well..." Shizuka grinned at her in a mix of embarrassment and happiness. "Can we spend some time in the shower today?" Her voice was husky, her eyes a sapphire allure. "I really liked it the last time we did it in there..." the older girl disclosed and grinned even more broadly at the unhesitant nod Kotoha gave. "Next, can we enjoy our usual fun in the living room with some nice music on? We have the entire house to ourselves tonight after all." Their parents were visiting the Himemiya Mansion and staying the night. "Do you not think that it is going to be a thrill to have our... nightly fun somewhere other than our bedroom?" Another quick nod. "And we will improvise from then, okay?"

"Anything you want," Kotoha repeated, tightening her arms around her sweetheart and blushing furiously at the prospect of doing something new with her ardent bedmate later in the evening.

Her teenaged girlfriend smiled and kissed her deeply until a knock on the locked door interrupted their intimate moment. "It's me," Aizawa Nanami's voice called. "It's almost time for the second half."

"I will be right out," answered Shizuka as she took Kotoha's hand and led her out of the waiting room. The class representative in her black tuxedo was waiting outside with her back leaning against the wall and her arms folded beneath her chest. She approached Kotoha as soon as she had her sister pulled the door back into place.

"I didn't have a chance to say it before," said the pony-tailed girl, her lips curved by a soft smile full of admiration and touched with a little of envy, "but you are absolutely stunning tonight, Kotoha-chan." She laid a hand on Kotoha's shoulder, her praise bringing a faint warmth to Kotoha's cheeks.

"How rude," remarked the azure-haired mermaid. "She is ravishing _everyday_ , not just tonight." She gracefully brushed the other girl's hand off of Kotoha's shoulder before drawing her into a tight and protective hug. "And would you kindly refrain from touching _my_ Kotoha without my permission, please? Not that I will give you one." Her voice, sweet chocolate to the ears, was brimming with hilarity when she peered at her friend but awash with love the heartbeat her sapphire gems dawned on Kotoha's visage.

"See what kind of stingy and possessive freak your sister is now, Kotoha-chan?" The bespectacled violinist chortled aloud. "If you want to change your mind, I'm always an option. A very good one at that." She fell quiet however, as soon as Kotoha laid a finger across her lips.

"Don't say bad things about _my_ koneko-chan," Kotoha murmured with a teasing smile, her hand withdrawing and falling back onto her adolescent lover's waist. Shizuka chuckled and bent down to reward her with a brief but loving kiss on her lips. The hallway was empty.

"I forgot." Aizawa feigned an exasperated shake of her head. "You're one too. Aren't you a match made in heaven? Anyways, will you answer me one question, though, Kotoha-chan? I'll need to know what I'm missing by failing to seduce your sister so that I can wallow in self-pity and regret later."

"What is it?" she asked, curiosity getting the better of her despite a hurried shake of her fair onee-chan's head.

"How good is she in bed?" A wicked grin split the pretty face of her pony-tailed senpai into two. It pumped a staggering amount of blood to Kotoha's cheeks.

"Class rep!" choked the normally genteel Himemiya, her natural composure nowhere to be seen. "What kind of question is that?!"

"She's incredible," Kotoha decided to humor her sister's friend with the truth. Shizuka gaped at her, cheeks no less crimson than the color of Kotoha's dress. And yet the proud gleam in her sapphire gems proved that she appreciated the comment very much. "She made me very happy during the nights." The princeling blushed another sunset. She looked adorably shy at that. Pleased by the compliment obviously. Embarrassed by it nonetheless. "Does the answer satisfy your curiosity, Aizawa-san?"

"Yes." She thumped a fist playfully on Shizuka's shoulder. "At least your sister's honest."

"I am going to talk to Mikoto and ask him to do something about your wicked mouth," muttered Shizuka. She made the statement sound a threat. Incredibly enough, the class representative seemed to have taken it as one. She clucked her tongue and shook her head, but she said nothing in return.

"That reminds me," Kotoha said. "I have a message for you from Mii-chan, Aizawa-san."

The violinist's bespectacled eyes swiveled to her face and bore at it like a drill. Her cheeks rapidly gained color. "What did Oogami-kun say?" Her voice was very soft and devoid of the mischievous timbre usually present when she opened her mouth and spoke.

"Um... he said he wanted to thank you for the concert ticket," Kotoha relayed the message from her childhood friend, a little surprised by the second-year's reaction. "And also he said he was sorry for not being able to make it tomorrow night. He mentioned going with his parents to visit his uncle."

"Ah, I see, thank you." Aizawa looked decidedly crestfallen.

"Interesting," Kotoha's gorgeous sister suddenly spoke up. She was wearing an impish smile on her lips. "I seem to recall that his parents and ours are going to dinner tomorrow. If they made any changes to the plan, our mothers would have known and told us."

Aizawa Nanami blinked, her lips thinning into a straight line in what seemed to be displeasure.

"I'm going to grab him after the concert is over," she said, looking and sounding as though she was fuming in her head despite her quiet voice. "Would you do me a favor and tell him I'll wait for him in the waiting room, Kotoha-chan?" She waited for an assenting nod before she stalked down the hallway.

An explanation dawned on her. Her sister had chosen tickets so that the seats reserved to her family would be closest to where she stood on the platform. Mikoto's seat, on the other hand, was no more than a couple feet away from his class representative's designated position. Since it was she who purchased the ticket and sent it to him, Kotoha doubted that a coincidence placed the boy in that seat.

"Mii-chan is her share of problems?" she asked her sister, who was chuckling in amusement while holding Kotoha in her arms. "She... likes him?"

"Smart girl." The seventeen-year-old nodded, smiling.

"But how?" Kotoha exclaimed, aghast.

"I am not sure myself." Shizuka untied her arms from Kotoha and took her hand. "But really, we should not worry too much. Aizawa will manage to deal with Mikoto somehow. Now, why don't you go back to your seat and enjoy the second half of the concert?" She led her down the hallway, at the end of which lay the entrance to the concert hall where their parents awaited. "And remember to pass the message along. We do not want Mikoto to escape from Aizawa's grasp, do we?"

* * *

 _Friday, September 12th, 6:45 PM, six years later._

* * *

Himemiya Chikane's heart had been a pounding drum since Himemiya Shizuka followed her sister into the Labor and Delivery Unit. Although she knew that her youngest daughter could be in no danger at all once she and the spark of life she carried in her womb for the last nine months had been entrusted to the capable hands of the doctors in the Himemiya General Hospital, a strange sense of anxiety still wreathed around her mind and agitated her heart. Despite doctors and nurses constantly and hurriedly crossed her vision, trying to get to their designated posts, she still felt as though only she and the sunlight of her world were present in the spacious Third Wing.

"Don't worry too much, Chikane-chan," her faithful companion soothed. "Nekoko's a competent doctor. Kotoha's going to be alright." The golden-haired woman, to whom the flow of time had been kind and for whose appearance it had delayed the dreadful aging effect, placed a hand on Chikane's and stroked its back gently.

"I know." She gave the golden-haired woman a tight smile. "But our daughter has never been one who does well in the face of pain. And it is childbirth we are talking about..." She trailed off and shivered at the memories of the agony she had had to endure when the doctors delivered Kotoha into the world.

"Shizuka's with her," the photographer pointed out. She never looked a day beyond thirty despite the years she had accumulated. Her facial skin was still smooth, her amethyst eyes shiny with life, her body fit and healthy enough to draw envy from most women her age. "She can take it, I'm sure."

"Let's hope so," Chikane murmured and draped an arm across the shoulders of the woman she loved. "Let's hope so." She sighed and glanced at her wristwatch. No more than a few minutes had passed since the doors of the Labor and Delivery Unit closed yet she thought it had been a lifetime. Never before had the air weighed so much on her shoulders or the flames of anxiety burned so strongly at the pit of her stomach.

The clock on the opposite wall continued to go round, each tick its second hand covered a drop of oil into her fiery impatience and nervousness. She was only thankful that her wife was here with her. She did not know how much worse she would have fared without the endearing presence of her sweetheart.

At long last, the doors to the Unit swung open, admitting the minuscule figure of Hibiki Shizuku. In a blue uniform, the woman with the feline grace was striding out with a brilliant smile on her lips.

Sensing the weight of the world lifting from her frame, Himemiya Chikane sprang to her feet just in time for the cat-fanatic to grab her right hand and shake it with enthusiasm.

"Congratulations!" Nekoko gushed. "Your daughter and grandchild are both safe and sound!"

When the tiny doctor let go of her hand, Chikane staggered backward and would have fallen flat on her back had the sunlit angel not slipped a pair of gentle arms around one of hers and helped her stay steady on her feet. Relief poured from her pores, joy coursed along her veins, and gratitude to the beings of power there were in Heaven flooded her heart. A hand rose and clutched at her mouth. Moisture stung in her sapphire eyes. She thought she was about to weep.

The unshed tears gleaming in Himeko's amethyst eyes suggested that she was, too.

"Can... can we go in?" Chikane asked, her voice a breathless whisper.

"Go ahead," Nekoko assented. "But don't stay too long, okay? We'll need to move Kotoha to a room in the Maternity Ward soon." With that and a nod, she departed.

Trembling with unspoken joy, Chikane took her wife's hand and led her inside the Delivery Unit.

What she saw inside destroyed the reins she had placed on her emotions. Tears overflowed the wells of her eyes and streaked down her cheeks. The photographer let out a small sob that was muffled by her hands.

Back straight against the incline of the delivery bed was her youngest daughter. Her beautiful face was pale, her amethyst eyes riveted on the precious wonder cradled in her sister's arms. Standing by the bed, Shizuka was wordlessly studying her daughter, whose birth was made possible by the Himemiya R&D Division. The young musician had never looked more joyous in her life even though tears were rolling unchecked down her cheeks.

"Kaa-chan," Kotoha called weakly. Her voice was quivering and even more tearful than her face.

"Go see the baby, Chikane-chan," suggested the photographer, who walked to where her youngest daughter was and began to stroke her head. The look on her angelic face suggested there were more than a thousand things she wished to say. The silence that hung over her and Kotoha proved that she did not know which she would like to say first. The twenty-two-year-old seemed to understand that, so she simply held her mother's hand and kept silent, her expressive eyes speaking more than she ever could.

"Do you want to hold her, kaa-san?" Shizuka invited.

Speechless from the storm of emotions in her heart, Chikane gave a quiet nod and extended her arms. Upon receiving the fruit of her daughter's labor, wrapped snugly in a silken blue cloth that revealed no more than the little one's face, she held the newborn gently but carefully and knew that she had been awarded with a treasure more valuable than any in this whole wide world. The wondrous spark of life, tiny and light in the flesh as her golden-haired mother at the time of her birth, seemed to be studying Chikane in return with a pair of heterochromatic eyes. Her left one bore the shade of an amethyst gem while her right shone like sapphire. Her countenance bearing both angelic and noble features, Chikane's grandchild surely would grow into a beauty like her mothers did.

 _My granddaughter..._ a voice sang solemnly at the back of her head as she held the newborn closer to her heart. Liquid flames blossomed in her eyes, overflowed, and burned while flooding down her face. Indescribable joy clenched her throat. Moisture stung in her nose. Gratitude threatened to pull her down to her knees and have her offer thanks to the Gods. She had waited for this day for so long. She had wanted to hold her very first grandchild in her arms for so long sometimes she woke up with a start in the night and immediately realized that what she had seen was no more than a fond dream. She had desired this Gods-sent cherub the same way a man lost in a desert would water. Maybe even more than that.

"Why..." she swallowed down a sob, "why is Akao so silent? Should she not be crying?"

The existence of this spark of life began in a test tube inside the R&D Division of the Himemiya International, where it received a thorough DNA treatment to remove any and all malignant genetic traits. Once the doctors had deemed that it was now free of inherent dangers, they implanted it in Kotoha's womb. Time passed softly and slowly until the researchers informed the two girls that the spark of life had grown into a perfectly healthy girl. It was then that Shizuka and Kotoha asked Chikane and Himeko to name their precious granddaughter.

Himemiya Akao was what they came up with.

It was Kotoha who answered her. "Akao cried a lot when she came out, Chi-kaa-chan," she said. "Once Nekoko-san had bathed her and cleaned her and transferred her to Shizuka-chan, she suddenly fell quiet." She gazed in deep fondness and love at her elder sister, to whom she was married as soon as they both graduated from a famed university. "Maybe because she knew Shizuka-chan was her mom..."

Able to continue no more, she wept openly and continued to do so when Himeko took her into her arms and held her tight. The golden-haired woman, too, shed her tears of joy while letting her hands travel soothingly up and down her daughter's back.

Feeling light enough to fly, Chikane lowered her mouth to Akao's high forehead and offered her a kiss. The baby seemed to be smiling when Chikane walked to where her golden-haired mother was and delivered her into the latter's welcoming arms. When she returned to where Shizuka stood, she pulled the young woman into a tight hug and whispered a soft _"Congratulations"_ into her ear. It seemed to be the last straw to her self-control, for the twenty-three-year-old immediately burst into tears on Chikane's shoulder.

Patting her eldest daughter on her back, Chikane hoped the arriving Himemiya Aoki and Sanae – the elderly couple was flying here from Tokyo – would fare better than their daughter's family. She did not want all six of them to cry in heartbreaking joy like this and disturb the entire Maternity Ward.

* * *

 _Wednesday, December 24th, 9:45 PM, seven years later._

* * *

Oogami Seiya's given name was derived from the fact that she was born on Christmas Eve eight years ago. That was why her parents would throw a great party for her in the evening of every December the twenty-fourth and invite friends as well as their kids to celebrate Seiya's birthday at her house. Despite their large circle of acquaintance, Oogami Mikoto and Oogami Nanami, her beloved mom and dad, only brought very few to this special gathering, all of these either the latter's once teammates in a musical group the name of which eluded Seiya at the moment, or their immediate family, specifically their spouses and kids.

On one hand, the grownups were pleasant enough, for they heaped praises and presents on her came every year's end. On the other, their children irked the heck out of her. They were always noisy, messy, unruly, and possibly a hundred other adjectives she had yet to learn from her mom and dad. Since she shared Mikoto's quiet and tidy nature, these brats annoyed her out of her mind with their typical childish behaviors. It didn't really matter whether they were boys or girls or younger or older than her, they were all a nuisance when she needed them least.

All except one.

Her name was Himemiya Akao, a girl who happened to be one year Seiya's junior. She alone was special. Seiya's regretfully limited vocabulary didn't allow her the luxury of further describing Akao... but it was undeniable that while the rambunctious young animals loosed on Seiya during her Christmas slash birthday party represented a year's worth of horrendous nightmares packaged and gift-wrapped into six painful hours, Akao embodied Seiya's fondest dreams.

Right now, the younger girl was sitting not too far away from Seiya, the former peering intently at a small doll in her hands. The golden-haired Barbie normally stayed in her doll house until the devils clothed in human flesh came more or less the same fashion a fever would. They dislocated her, they passed her around without thinking of her feelings, and they tossed her onto the floor once they got bored with her or found another toy to terrorize. Sometimes Seiya wished she was more of a vocal person like her mom. That way, she might have been able to talk some sense into the heads of those uncontrollable kids or scare them away from her indoor playground.

Anyways. Back to the doll.

Purchased from a foreign country a year back, the Barbie with golden hair and flashy clothes was easily the most beautiful thing Oogami Seiya saw. At least she was when Himemiya Akao wasn't in the same field of vision. Sometimes Seiya couldn't help wondering whether the girl would look into a mirror and become enchanted by her own reflection. Seiya certainly would be if she were but half as pretty as the girl sitting in front of her and oblivious to the ruckus the other kids were making in a different corner of the living room.

If a sylph stepped out from a fairytale, she would resemble Himemiya Akao in appearance. It was the only way Seiya could come up with to describe her friend's otherworldly and airy beauty. Some of the other kids were handsome or good-looking in their own rights... but she made them appear no more than candle lights trying to compete with a fire burning in all of its glory in a hearth.

Every visit Akao surprised Seiya by how much prettier she had grown during the time they spent apart. The reunion taking place between them more than half an hour ago was a good example. While her parents warmly greeted Himemiya Shizuka and Himemiya Kotoha, two women as beautiful as the sun at dawn and a full moon in a cloudless night, she had stood there like a tree deeprooted in the floor and stared in breathless wonder at the child whose hands were held by her artistic mothers.

Her very light platinum hair, so long it touched her waist and so shiny they could have been woven from the light of the stars, stirring in the cool but gentle nightly breeze and her moist eyes shining amethyst and sapphire in the lamp hung at the entrance, Himemiya Akao was pure light made flesh and an evening star clothed in the Santa Clause jacket and long skirt and hat she wore. As snowflakes flurried down from the heavens and sketched a picturesque panorama behind her back, her unearthly presence was all that lived in Seiya's eyes.

She sighed and quietly hugged her knees. She didn't really understand why she was so fascinated by someone who had never spoken a word to her during their three-year-old acquaintance. She was told by her parents that she had seen Akao even earlier than her sixth birthday party... but she couldn't recall.

Although she adored Akao's quietness, she wished the girl would just talk to her instead of trying to communicate through her eyes and body language. If she was interested in a toy Seiya had, she would look up at Seiya, peer down at what she had in her hand, gaze back up at Seiya, and tilt her head in a way that in Seiya's opinion redefined cuteness. If she wanted something to drink, she would lift her tiny hand to her throat and swallow more audibly than normal. Although the friendly and kind Shizuka and Kotoha assured her Akao could speak, sometimes she wasn't too sure.

It was such a shame Seiya rarely had the chance to see Akao more than once a year. The heavy schedules of their respective parents were the reason, of course. She often caught herself wishing either set of mom and dad – the other girl's azure-haired parent seemed more of a father figure despite being a lady, a beautiful one at that – would stay in one place instead of traveling around the world so that she had more chance to be with this special child.

"Seiya?" called her mom's voice. Oogami Nanami was seated at the humongous round table in the dining room, where she was flanked by her husband and Himemiya Shizuka. Seiya didn't think other people noticed, but she saw very clearly that the right hand of the azure-haired lady always held the left of her wife under the table when the former wasn't using it to eat. Although affectionate toward one another, Seiya's parents never did that. "Would you come over here for a bit?" Nanami waved at her.

Giving the voiceless wonder Himemiya Akao one last glance, she sighed and rose to her feet. A few seconds of careful pattering brought her to where her mom sat. The main course of the meal was already over. What lay on the table at the moments were dishes of assorted fruits meant for desert.

"Yes, kaa-san?" She gazed up at Nanami. She was a beautiful woman... but when Akao's parents were nearby, her charming appearance was greatly diminished. It was a good thing that Seiya's mother was never the jealous and envious type.

A quick glance over her shoulder informed her that Himemiya Akao had stopped studying the Barbie doll in her hands and started staring in Seiya's direction.

"Would you like some kiwi?" Nanami invited, hand gesturing at a china dish nicely decorated with the greenish fruit. "Kaa-san seemed to have chosen her fruits right this time. They taste great." She laughed softly at that and winked at Seiya's father, who often made fun of her inability to distinguish between good and bad produce.

Seiya shook her head and peered at her mom in righteous confusion. Oogami Nanami knew better than anyone that Seiya loathed the taste of the fruit.

A second glance told her the platinum-haired girl had yet to look away. It was as though there was something interesting glued to Seiya's back.

"Go back to playing with Akao then, kiddo." Nanami's eyes seemed to be smiling.

"Seiya-chan?" Himemiya Kotoha called. She had a pretty voice.

"Yes?" she answered, wondering why Akao wasn't interested in the doll anymore.

"Would you take some kiwi to Akao for me?" Kotoha requested. "She really likes it."

"Sure, Kotoha-san." The painter – she painted a beautiful triptych, a difficult word that took Seiya a lot of time and effort to learn, of Seiya's parents as a gift for their wedding day – had already granted Seiya permission to address her by her given name on their very first meeting.

"Thank you." Kotoha took a small dish of the fruit and placed it in Seiya's hands.

This time, it was Himemiya Shizuka who seemed to be smiling with her sapphire eyes.

Rather puzzled, Seiya went back to the living room. Although the platinum-haired girl was staring in Seiya's direction the entire time she spent at the dining table, she lowered her eyes back to the Barbie as soon as Seiya began her return trip. By the time she had settled down cross-legged on the same spot she was sitting on before she was summoned away, the younger girl was once again immersed in examining the doll with her eyes.

"Akao?" Seiya laid a hand on her friend's shoulder. The Himemiya girl trembled slightly at the contact and looked up at her. There was a strange light in her sapphire-and-amethyst eyes that Seiya hadn't seen before. "Your mom said you liked kiwi." Seiya swallowed. _Why am I so nervous?_ "Want some?"

The other girl stared at Seiya for such a long while that when the former started to move her head, Seiya was ready to bring back the dishful of fruit to the table. What she received was a nearly imperceptible nod. It brightened her mood the same way the flames in the hearth would a lightless room.

Smiling to herself, Seiya watched as Akao let go of the Barbie, stood up, quietly walked to where she sat, and received the kiwi dish from her hands. The girl was about to go back when Seiya's traitorous arm rose on its own accord and her equally rebellious fingers caught the long sleeve of Akao's red jacket. Seiya's jowl threatened to drop to the floor at a surprised blink of the seven-year-old's sparkling eyes. The sound-rich atmosphere in the living room dimmed to silence in Seiya's ears. Her throat was so dry it hurt.

It was the panic that trounced her stomach at the moment Akao turned away that compelled her to do what she did. It was her wish to be closer, physically and emotionally both, that seized control of her limbs. As to how it managed such a feat, she had no clue.

"Um..." Her voice faltered. Her jaw froze. She didn't know how to describe what she wanted.

Luckily, she didn't have to. Apparently aware of Seiya's unspoken wish, Himemiya Akao quietly surveyed Seiya's face as though asking where she should sit.

Seiya's body acted faster than her brain could control. Her breath caught the moment her hand patted on her lap. The air around her immediately went so cold she could have sworn someone just opened the door and invited winter inside.

Himemiya Akao blushed. She was a hundred times prettier with that rosy glow on her cheeks. It complemented the snowy shade of her skin, the gemstone shine of her irises, and the elegant color of her hair. While it actually reduced the ethereal quality of her beauty... it rendered her so much more endearing in Seiya's eyes.

It was her turn to blush when the seven-year-old actually granted her wordless request and sat down on her lap so that her small back reclined gingerly against her front.

It was only then did she learn how warm and soft and light and fragrant the younger girl was.

 _I want to hug her,_ a voice raved at the back of her head. _I want to hold her so much._

She did. She never had a chance to stop herself. Her arms snaked around her friend's small waist and pulled her into a tight hug from behind. The warmth cascading in endless waves from Himemiya Akao enveloped Seiya.

The platinum-haired child drew a sharp intake of breath. She made no visible attempt to struggle out of Seiya's embrace. Instead, she softened in Seiya's arms and allowed herself to be hugged. The sounds of the world coming alive in her ears, Oogami Seiya wondered why such a simple and impulsive action could make her so happy.

A gentle movement of Akao's head caused a few strands of her fine platinum hair to brush against Seiya's nose. A sneeze came. A second. A third.

The seven-year-old peered at Seiya over her shoulder for a few moments before she lifted her tiny hands to her mouth. Then she laughed. It was the clearest and most musical laughter Seiya ever heard. The Himemiya kid made the others sound like a braying mule when they did the same thing as she.

Dazed by what she felt with her front, what she saw with her eyes, what she smelled with her nose, and what she heard with her ears, Seiya sat still and watched as the girl one year her junior partake on the fruits which she loathed so much she could rarely stand their sight. Right now they didn't seem all that bad. Not when the cutest girl in the world was chipping at them with a grace that not many adults had. Even the way Akao sucked at her tiny fingertips afterwards was elegant. Seiya honestly couldn't think of anything the younger girl did that was _not_.

Once the platinum-haired cherub had finished a couple kiwi slices, she turned slightly and offered Seiya a third. Her profound distaste toward the fruit thrown into the fireplace, she opened her mouth and waited. Akao only colored a little and hesitated for no more than a few heartbeats before she fed it to Seiya's lips. She never took back her cute little hand until Seiya had consumed the slice.

It didn't taste half as bad as the last time she tried it.

Smiling a beautiful smile that showed off her equally beautiful and even teeth, Akao alternated between feeding herself and Seiya. Soon, nothing was left on the china dish.

Unfortunately, the time had come for them to be parted.

Her mom's other friends were already fetching their warm coats as they migrated across the living room. The adults were rather peculiar in that they each paused to give Seiya and Akao a curious glance prior to fetching the misfits they had brought to crash Seiya's party and spiriting them away. Some were smiling in a fashion that reminded Seiya of the boys in her class whenever they were up to mischief.

Himemiya Shizuka and Kotoha were the last to remain. Standing with Seiya's parents in the living room, the two towered over where Seiya sat with their daughter still cuddled tightly in her arms. All four of them were wearing the same mischievous smile their friends did. They made Seiya think that she had done something she shouldn't have. They appeared as though they wanted to take the platinum-haired cherub in her embrace. Her arms tightened around Akao by reflex.

"Let's go home, Akao," said Himemiya Shizuka. "It is late already. Besides, your grandparents are going to grill us unless we bring you home to them so that they can cuddle you before going to sleep." She extended a hand toward her daughter, who took it and turned her head to look at Seiya. It was the pleading look in those amethyst-and-sapphire eyes that made her loosen the curves of her arms and eventually let go.

The moment Akao rose to her feet was also the same one in which the heat of the fireplace stopped reaching Seiya. She felt chilly despite the warm clothes she had on her... and that beating organ in her chest grew heavier with every step the shorter girl took away from where she sat.

Seiya's mind was blank the entire time she was walking with her parents toward the front door to see the Himemiya family off. Her eyes were riveted on Akao's back so intently it was a miracle she didn't trip and fall flat on her front. Not only was her heart heavy, it had also begun to hurt as though nettled by thorns. She thought she was stepping on coal instead of the wooden floor.

"Thank you again for a wonderful party this year," Himemiya Shizuka spoke at the door. "I think I am growing fed up with Kotoha's food." She winked at her wife, who made a face. Laughing, the azure-haired musician – Nanami purchased all of the records she ever released – pulled Himemiya Kotoha into a tight hug and kissed her lightly on her forehead. The painter blushed and smiled in such a joyous manner she warmed Seiya's heart. A glance at their only daughter's nonchalant visage chilled it back down to air temperature. The adorable seven-year-old looked as though she couldn't careless about not seeing Seiya for another long year. The thought stung Seiya's eyes and clenched her throat.

She wasn't even angry that Akao didn't care. She was simply sad and disappointed.

She didn't know what was going on with her.

"Don't mention it." Oogami Mikoto gave a dismissive wave of his hand. "We're happy that you and Akao visited us every year." Seiya couldn't help noticing that he had placed a strange emphasis on the seven-year-old's name. For some reason, he glanced at her so quickly she wasn't even sure that he did.

"Well then," Himemiya Kotoha smiled, "we'll take our leave. My moms should be missing Akao sick at home." She laughed quietly. "Sometimes I think they love her more than they love us."

"With a grandchild as cute as she, who wouldn't?" Nanami laid a hand on the younger girl's head and ruffled her platinum hair. "Do you love your grandparents, Akao?"

The Himemiya kid gave an enthusiastic nod of her head.

"With grandmothers who spoil their granddaughter silly, who wouldn't?" Kotoha countered good-naturedly. All of the adults laughed.

"We will be going now," announced the azure-haired lady. "You should take Seiya back inside. It is too cold out here." She and her wife each took a hand of their daughter's. "See you next time."

No sooner than Akao turned around did the bubble of emotions in Seiya's chest burst. Hot tears spilled down her cheeks... and she wept as hard as she ever did in her life.

Her parents were stunned. The Himemiya were shocked into deathly stillness. Eyes big as teacups, Akao stared at Seiya, agape. Having no one to stop her, she continued to cry. She was by no means a kid who shed her tears often or even easily... yet it pained her so much just to know that the seven-year-old was completely indifferent to her feelings. Not that she could blame her young friend. She herself didn't really understand why she was acting in such a peculiar manner.

"Why are you crying all of a sudden, Seiya?" Nanami sank to her knees and gently patted Seiya on the back. "Tell kaa-san, will you?" Mikoto remained on his feet and scratched his cheeks in confusion. He loved her very much, but she knew he would rather not deal with her tears. He wasn't good at it.

It was then that she saw Himemiya Shizuka whispering something into her daughter's ear.

Face coloring rapidly, Akao stepped forward and placed herself half an arm's length away from Seiya. After a long pause, she did something Seiya never anticipated.

Hands on Seiya's shoulders, the platinum-haired cherub rose on her feet and kissed her. On the mouth. Her lips were very soft, they possessed an amazing warmth, and they tasted like the kiwi she had fed Seiya with her own hand.

Seiya was so shocked she stopped crying. Cheeks burning, she watched as Akao hurriedly pattered to where her parents stood and hid behind Kotoha.

 _"Shizuka!"_ exclaimed Oogami Mikoto. He looked rather indignant.

"What!" The musician and her wife were equally taken aback. "I did not say on the mouth!"

The only person visibly amused by what just happened was Oogami Nanami, who doubled over laughing. Her husband gave her a wry look.

Seiya lifted a hand and touched her lips with a finger. She couldn't believe Akao did what she did. _She... kissed me..._ a voice sang in her head. She was feeling so warm inside she wouldn't have any problem standing here for another hour.

"In any case," Kotoha said, a little bit flustered, "we should really go." She looked worriedly at the snowfall, which was decidedly heavier than what it used to be when the Himemiya arrived.

The platinum-haired girl once again did something Seiya thought she never would.

"See you soon, Seiya," Akao said just as she was turning around. Smiling softly, she walked with her parents toward the car they parked on the street.

Seiya already knew her friend's voice was beautiful from the crystalline laughter she gave earlier... but she never imagined it could be so much so. Were Akao to sing, Seiya was sure angels would descend from the sky and dance around her until she stopped.

Seiya remained speechless even after her parents had taken her inside and flanked her on a sofa in the living room. The forefinger of her right hand remained on her lips, ever brushing against them and tracing their outline. She seemed to do it unconsciously.

"Akao seems to like you very much, Seiya," her mom spoke finally. She was smiling so broadly her face was split into halves.

"How... do you know?" Seiya said hesitantly. "She never said anything to me before."

"She's just shy in front of other people. Especially you." Nanami chuckled. "Can you guess what the first thing she did after she came home every year was?" She chuckled more loudly at a confused shake of Seiya's head. "She climbed into bed with her grandparents and talked about you all night long."

Her cheeks warmed.

"I noticed that she loved watching you from afar," Nanami added in amusement, her hand ruffling Seiya's hair. "And if that kiss was any indication... Gods, why didn't I bring a camera?"

She blushed harder.

"You know," Mikoto said suddenly to his wife, "Shizuka really did take after Chikane-obaa-san. I can't believe she suckered me so easily... and badly." He sighed deeply and gave Seiya a wry glance. "I lost a bet thanks to you, kiddo." He pinched her nose.

"What bet?" she asked, surprised.

"Well, I said that you wouldn't eat kiwi no matter what," he answered. "Shizuka wagered that you would if Akao fed it to you. Unfortunately for me, she was right."

 _So that's why they called me to the table,_ she thought, embarrassed. _They were playing with me!_

Something piqued her curiosity. "How did you know Akao would?" she asked.

It was her mom who answered her. "That's her habit. Kotoha said her daughter had a penchant for feeding the people she adored. The child did that with her parents and grandparents all the times." Nanami smiled. "She never did with any other, mind you. Do you believe me now when I said she liked you a lot?"

Seiya nodded slightly, sensing so much happiness welling in her chest that the presents piled up under the Christmas tree didn't seem all that attractive anymore.

Nanami turned to her husband. "So, I hope you intend to honor your promise, Mii-chan."

He knuckled her affectionately on her forehead. "Oogami Mikoto never goes back on his word."

"What are you talking about, tou-san, kaa-san?" Seiya asked, confused.

"I lost the bet," said Mikoto. "I have to honor my promise. That means we will be spending New Year's Eve and New Year's Day with the Himemiya. We're staying at their house for the holidays, kiddo." He sighed and shook his head in what seemed exasperation. "All the plans I made... all flushed down the drain. Why did you have to do this to me, Shizuka?"

Nanami laughed.

Warmth and joy bloomed across Seiya's body. It was almost too good to be true.

"Seiya?" her mom called. "We have some kiwi left in the fridge. Would you like to have them?"

She nodded before she knew she did.

"You _know_ Seiya is only _eight,_ right, Nanami?" Mikoto said, his voice dry.

"Yes, so what?" She stuck out her tongue at him.

"What do you mean _'so what'?"_ He knuckled her again in a much fonder manner than when he did last. "You've been acting as though you're going to marry Akao to Seiya all evening."

Heat flared on Seiya's cheeks. "What are you saying, tou-san?!" she exclaimed, flustered.

"Well then, you tell me you whether want to or not, Seiya," Nanami demanded.

When the answer finally came, she laughed so hard tears leaked from her eyes.


End file.
